Unexplained MMS charges - fraud?

[johniow]

I've just had four MMS items to +10020250100 charged which are out of plan and which I cannot find in my message history. Small beer I know ... BUT checking various "who called me" type sites there seems to be a pattern of BT subscribers being charged for out-of-plan MMS messages (to BT) for which they have no record, and were often sent in the middle of the night when they were asleep.
Have others found this, and is there a perfectly logical and legal reason?

[NigelB72]

This is being discussed on the EE forum. I'm not sure if it's acceptable to post the link on here as this is a BT Retail forum but if you highlight the number you quoted and do a search, the page pops up in the first few results on Google. It seems to explain what it is...

[johniow]

Thanks Nigel - can I post the answer at the end of this post? If not, I'll delete it
I looked at Settings>messages>send & receive and indeed an email address was included under "receive to and reply from but NOT for "Start new conversations".
Timings may have been dependent on when the system decided there was no connectivity for emails, but I can't see any emails sent around the those times. It hasn't helped that I've only just looked, and one of the charges dates from the 18 August. The moral there is keep checking the charges. Anyway, iMessage now doesn't use an email address. I do hope that the conversion I often see of ":-)" to "🙂" isn't charged as an emoji 😞 
I'm broadly unconvinced, especially given the large number of people who've checked the number on the phone look-up sites, but we'll see.
"  If you are within Settings>Messages make sure just your phone number is ticked, don’t not use your email address for sending iMessages.  The problem with iMessage is if the receiver has no cellular or WiFi signal your sending a message to an email address from a text message app and that’s chargeable as an MMS even though you didn’t send a picture,"