Opera fined 20 times in two years?

Opera Interactive Technology, the firm accused over GMTV phone quizzes, has been fined 20 times in the past two years, a report has claimed.

The ITV show terminated its contract with the company following accusations made by Panorama that potential winners were chosen for some competitions while people were still paying to enter.

Opera has been fined a total of £216,000 by regulator Icstis for various breaches of its code of conduct in recent years, according to The Sun.

In one alleged scam people were sent text messages purporting to be from an admirer. By replying, the recipients would be signed up for a reverse-billed messaging service.

Another, says the paper, charged users £3 a day for at least 16 days for “Babe a Day” pictures which they were never sent.

Icstis is now investigating the new allegations.