A MOTHER is urging mobile phone users to be wary of buying applications after her 15-year-old son was charged £554 for unsolicited text messages.

Dominic Fenton of Cranfield View, Darwen, downloaded a Where’s Wally game via Orange World, the games and ringtone provider for Orange, to his mobile phone on January 3.

Then every minute of January 6, 7, 8 and 9, when the bill arrived, a multi-media message was sent to the phone costing £1.20 a time, despite it not showing on the handset.

Dominic’s mum, Hazel Fenton, said: “When I opened the bill I was absolutely shocked.

"I thought ‘this is impossible’, then I thought, ‘I’m going to kill him!'

“According to the bill, the texts have been coming from a company called Switchfire every minute of the day and night even though there’s no evidence of them on the phone.

“Dominic’s always texting on his phone, so we got him a contract where he has unlimited texts, but I check what my children are doing and I know he hasn’t received anything.”

An investigation has been launched into the bill and whether it was a mistake or the amounts had been properly charged.

Mrs Fenton said: “There should be something in place that stops bills like this being run up, even if you have unlimited messages.

“It’s a good job that the bills come out a week before any money is taken out of the bank, because I’d be left with nothing.

“I dread to think how much it would have been if we hadn’t have caught it early.”

A spokeswoman for Orange confirmed that the company were investigating the matter.

Switchfire were unavailable for comment.