O2 Age Verification - Redirection

[Anonymous]

All of a sudden when I try to log into certain sites (betfair for example), my browser gets redirected to the following page:
http://bango.net/O2AV/wAV.aspx
This has suddenly started happening today, and to be honest my spider senses start twitching when seemingly random sites start asking me for credit card details, especially ones that say they are O2 but have a web address that has bears no resemblance to the official site.
Anybody else had this?
Had what appeared to be a random spam email in my mobile broadband inbox today (which obviously you have no choice but to read cos the softare automatically opens all new messages regardless of who they are from!), so concerned it might be something nasty that has infected the modem/software as they both operate the other side of my firewall (I assume).
Any advice would be appreciated!
Many thanks

[Anonymous]

Called O2 customer services iPhone devision. A darling lady said there was lots of forms from all customers on this. She took my normal details no bank numbers and filled the form and sorted it for me saying would take no more than 2 days.
Saved me a costly trip to town. She was so lovely if only tech side was as good as customer service.
I think an I.T guy pushed wrong button (reaseting age verification) as she put it, so they took him out back and shot him behind the barn.

[adamtemp64]

mine took about 12 hours after phone call.

[Anonymous]

I don't use O2 for my mobile service, but if I did, and this happened, I would immediately cancel my account. If it was still within the contract period and they complained, I would reply that the service was not fit for use and no further payment would be made. I expect my ISP, whether DSL or 3G, to be transparent and unfiltered as to the data I transfer and the services I access.

I'm afraid you may need to leave the country then. Almost all UK internet services are filtered via the Internet Watch Foundation's blacklists. You probably haven't even noticed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation

[Anonymous]

The point you're missing, Beaufighter, is that O2 should have absolutely no hand in what I browse on the Internet. The fact they're blocking sites like translate.google.com drives home the banality of it.

That site can act as a proxy. Hence why its not on the whitelist

I've been on my o2 contract since June and today is the first time this has happened. They expect me to go out of my way, all of a sudden, to remove some bullshit block that wasn't there in the first place? And charge me.

They pay you actually.

It's inexcusable.
So please, stop your sycophantic pandering posts, you cannot explain away o2's insane new policy.

Its to placate the last government who demanded either the mobile co's do something to "protect the kids", or "we'll make you". The current Gov is looking at making similar demands on landline ISPs (even though they've almost all got some filtering on them anyway throught the IWF).

[Anonymous]

This stupid age verification thing is a load of ####! Yes, I know they need to protect younger users, blah blah but I've had my dongle for about 2 years now, was 19 when I bought it and am now 21 and they're asking me for age verification?!
I shouldn't have to PAY to have it lifted when I was 19 when I bought the damn thing in the first place! Don't they get enough money off us already?! It won't even let me go on a #### fanfiction site or anything. And the worst part is, they need a CREDIT card to pay to lift it, what if we don't have one? We have to trapse all the way to an o2 shop just to lift a stupid, #### age ban! I'm going to call them tomorrow and they better take off the restriction.
It's a users right to browse whatever they want to on the internet and it's absolutley bogus that we're being told what we can and cannot look at when they're more than happy to take our #### money for it!

[Anonymous]

Here's something for O2 to chew over:
1) paying Bango £1 to receive a £2.50 voucher to spend at O2, for a service I do not require and which offends me by its existence is NOT the definition of a reimbursement. Think about it - I am being told that if I don't want to humiliate myself in an O2 shop then I HAVE to pay Bango £1, and your method of refunding me is to give me credit that I HAVE to spend with you. I still have £1 spent on my credit card that I have to pay back myself.
That's so appalling, it's got to be illegal. And if it's isn't, it should be.
2) O2 did nothing whatsoever to publicise this beyond a single post on some blog they have that I've never heard of and do not subscribe to, indicating that they have a huge amount of disdain for their customers.
3) The CEO of O2, Matthew Key, was on BBC Radio 5 Live this weekend admitting that it wasn't ideal that they didn't tell customers, and that it would be something to look at in the future. Not a hint of genuine remorse there, or explanation as to what sort of attitude to customers leads to this policy getting past the CEO in the first place.
4) He also said he knew nothing about legit websites being blocked.
5) The entire process is undermined by ageverification.o2.co.uk where you can enter your mobile number and get a code to enter on the O2 website to remove the block.
6) There is no aspect of the process that currently works with iPads. You can't credit me with £2.50 as I don't have a rolling bill with O2 on my iPad. You can't use the ageverification.o2.co.uk page as an iPad cannot receive or display text messages. I refuse to walk into an O2 shop and ask permission to view over-18 websites from some shop assistant, as I was told to by the O2 Twitter account.
7) Any young adult with half a brain will find ways around this anyway: for example, get a pre-paid credit card online, or surf via a proxy service.
😎 I managed to get my iPhone unblocked by simply calling 202 from my phone and telling the chap who answered I wanted the block taken off immediately. He asked my password and removed the block. Didn't ask my age: why not? Presumably because he has it on his system in the first place. But hang on, that system is the one that O2 claims is undermined by parents buying their kids mobiles and contracts. So what was the point of the AV check in the first place if it's so easily bypassed like this?
9) They're trying to Protect The Children but I expect more kids access the internet from PCs running O2's Home Broadband than do from smartphones running O2's Mobile Web. Will this blanket assumption that we are all underage viewers of porn extend to regular internet customers shortly?
10) O2's main argument is that parents buy their kids smartphones and contracts. They also buy them TV, so does that mean an inspector will call after 9pm to check up on your kids? Will my Xbox need to scan my birth certificate if I load an 18 game that was legally sold to me by a shop assistant who confirmed my age at the till?
No. It is the parents responsibilities, not mine and certainly not O2s. By taking responsibility for The Children by stopping everyone from viewing 'unsuitable' sites, surely they are insinuating some sort of ownership of or responsibility for the content of the internet?
I am unspeakably angry about the whole thing and have written a 3 page letter to Matthew Key, also copied to all the Complaints Services O2 have. If I don't get a decent reply I will send it and the reply to all the major trading standards bodies and newspapers.
It's moves like this that precipitate more freedom for the ISPs to monitor and block our internet use in the future.

[Anonymous]

What is it about my post describing it as a fault that can be rectified with a phone call that is proving hard to grasp?
:robotwink:

I think it's probably the fact that CEO of O2 Europe, Matthew Key, was on BBC Radio 5 Live this weekend and clearly stated that his company had misjudged their roll out by not warning everybody, which rather implies that there was no 'error' - the intended plan was to block every single O2 mobile user in the country until they either humiliate themselves in an O2 shop or buy £2.50 of credit for £1 via Bango.
There was no 'technical error' whatsoever. Just a severe 'judgement error'.

[Anonymous]

What is it about my post describing it as a fault that can be rectified with a phone call that is proving hard to grasp?
:robotwink:

Because (a) I can't make a voice call using the O2 Mobile Broadband dongle (wouldn't expect to), and the phone numbers mentioned in these forums don't work on landlines (obviously), and the 0870 support number in my contract is pricy; and anyway (b) on Tuesday 1 March, Customer Services call centre couldn't "rectify the fault over the phone", because no-one in O2 had told them anything about it.
To be fair, the message did seem to have got through to the local shop by Wednesday, because they knew immediately what to do; and they accepted the DOB on my original O2 contract as proof of age. Result! but what a hassle, and what a customer-relations disaster.

[Anonymous]

Everytime i enter my card details it keeps coming back as unnseccessful even though ive entered the correct details. Anyone else having this problem?

[Anonymous]

I have just started being redirected to age verification and i dont have a credit card so i contacted o2 as i am unable to visit an o2 shop due to a disability where i was informed they could do nothing for me. I feel this is terrible and they have obviously not thought about people like myself. I am stuck at home all the time and now i cant even use the internet to play games o2 really need to sort this out