Update December 28, Barbados Free Press

The two phone idol links in this article are dead. Here are two related articles that I found today (Dec. 9):
Opera Fined

Liquidator Liable for Phone Scam!

Barbados Underground recently posted an update on the Lucky Numbers story. Adrian Loveridge has presented an outstanding article based on weeks of tenacious investigative reporting. [Sunday morning update: this caused threats, to which Loveridge responded.] Keltruth Corp. has done a little research of its own, and has uncovered additional scandals.

While checking into earlier postings, and googling a bit, we came across the below links for another competition, originally mentioned a while ago on Barbados Underground, supposedly being run in three islands, by the following companies:

Opera Interactive (Barbados) Ltd.

Opera Interactive (Jamaica) Ltd.

Opera Interactive (Trinidad) Ltd.

The below link brings up the main page.

http://www.caribbeanphoneidol.com/

If you select a flag (Barbados, Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago), and click on the terms and conditions link, you will see some interesting information (the link below is for the Barbados company):

http://bb.caribbeanphoneidol.com/terms_barbados.cfm

The Broad Street Journal carried this story a few weeks ago:

http://www.broadstreetnews.com/index.php?categoryid=33&p2_articleid=824

Barbadians must awaken. Without public outcry, this matter will remain unresolved. You may be thinking:”OK, they took $2.30 from me. Why should I bother to demand accountability?” Think about this. Fraud may have been committed against many other Barbadians. What the public needs to be concerned about is that any claim of wrongdoing should either be refuted or investigated. To ignore a call for an investigation just heightens suspicion.

Keltruth Corp. has discovered additional information on the British fraud case, where the company involved was “Opera Interactive Technology”. There are stories in the Guardian. The case has also been debated on at least one British blog.

We would like to hear from people who have called the number and paid for the call. Who actually processed the billing for your call - was it Cable and Wireless? You do not need to give us your email address when you send us a comment - it is optional.

What is the relationship between the different Operas? Are they singing the same tune? The links below will explain the different names:

Keltruth Corp. found negative articles on phone-in scandals involving this company. It appears that the consumers were very unhappy.

… but we also found nice things said about the company, like how much money they were making on their overseas divisions outside of UK. They also received an award for the best management.