I CAN'T HELP BUT THINK THIS IS ALL TURNING INTO A BIT OF A NIGHTMARE

While Bob was growling at Ebay for daring to run an auction house, a nastier scame was developing, with those odious mobile phone sharps sending texts promising a 'second chance' for Live 8 tickets. You're asked, of course, to call a premium rate number, whereupon you spend ages running up a massive bill. And there's no tickets on offer at all.

Now, we're sure all the mobile companies - and especially "partner" to Live 8 O2 - would be mortified at this news, and besides acting swiftly to block the numbers, will be promising to turn over the share of the profits they'll be unwittingly making from these calls to good causes. Otherwise, you know, they'd be in the position of making money from a scam off the backs of the poorest people, wouldn't they?

Geldof is, of course, blunt:

"People are being conned. If you hadn't been alerted by Wednesday night, you ain't got tickets. Ignore these texts."

Of course, what helps the con artists get away with it is the confusion created by the officially-endorsed existence of 'second chance' tickets - such as those being given away by the Daily Mirror today. Bob's managed to create a system where there's extra tickets floating about, endorsed by Live 8, which makes people so much more likely to believe the false texts.

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