Help please

[Husky_Cat]

I was given a leaflet today about The Emergency SMS text messaging service for the deaf or hard of hearing people to use.
Basically it is a way for us to contact the emergency services by texting to 999 and asking for an emergency service as they know that we cant pick up the phone.

I just wanted to make sure that the website to register is legal and not a way to take my details for scams etc

www.emergencysms.org.uk (http://www.emergencysms.org.uk)

Is this real? I dont know how to check myself so that why i am asking you for help. :)

[Beowulf]

I was given a leaflet today about The Emergency SMS text messaging service for the deaf or hard of hearing people to use.

Is this real? I dont know how to check myself so that why i am asking you for help. :)

did a quick WHOIS on the domain. See below.

http://www.who.is/whois/emergencysms.org.uk/

Seems open and above board .. bit concerned about the registrar being BTconnect. might be valid might be someone having a go..

ask yourself these questions.. who gave you the leaflet? was it in a hospital or respected establishment? or some random joe off the street?

if you're in doubt contact other existing support groups. Ask them if they've heard anything about this already? phone up the local police/hospital/fire station..ask them if it's something they're aware of ?

hard to tell if things are scams or not.. I err on the side of caution at all times. if I have ANY doubts at all I don't give out my info ..

[philsmove]

.. bit concerned about the registrar being BTconnect. might be valid might be someone having a go..

..

The Registrant: Michael Day Trading as: BT
the "about us page" http://www.emergencysms.org.uk/about_us.php contains no address or details
looks very odd to me

[philsmove]

Sorry it looks like Mr Day, does indeed work for BT

so its probably all OK


his full contact details are at the bottom of this page http://www.disabilityworld.org/11-12_01/access/textdirect.shtml

[Husky_Cat]

It was given to me by my social worker for the deaf, but no idea where he got it from as it was posted through my door as I missed the doorbell due being in shower.

I will try and find out more about it before i even think about sending details as I would like a text service to contact emergency services.

[Dreadful Scathe]

is this even necessary ? for years you have been able to send a text message to any phone number and your service provider turns sms's into a voice message if the destination cannot receive it as an sms

[ducasi]

is this even necessary ? for years you have been able to send a text message to any phone number and your service provider turns sms's into a voice message if the destination cannot receive it as an sms
A simple SMS–speech gateway is probably not sufficient for 999 as it needs to be routed to a local operator. In mobile land, especially due to the way SMS messages are managed, it may be much harder to do this routing.

This service probably allows your 999 texts to be routed to your "home" local operators.