Help after being Scammed

[SMMOOOOO16]

Good Afternoon

Just thought I would share this with the community for awareness and maybe a potential solution as well.

Yesterday evening I was browsing the internet on my mobile and whilst browsing I was directed towards a pornographic website which appeared in a new window. The website prevented me from closing the page easily and several minutes later I received the following text message informing me I had been charged £18:00.

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I didn’t pay much attention to the text since I thought it was just a scam but this morning I checked my account and I had been charged £18.00 to which I must say I was a little surprised by and am still struggling to understand how simply by visiting a website unintentionally I could be charged £18.00!

I carried out a bit of research prior to calling customer services and found that this appears to be a scam, I have included a link below which provides some information

http://www.smswatchdog.com/text-message-from/02035405930?l

Having had a look into this I called through to O2 customer services I was speaking with Jade, after explaining the issue and my concerns she promptly hung up on me! Not a great start!

I subsequently called back and spoke to another member of the O2 customer services team and explained what happened. He advised me that there was nothing O2 could do in terms of the charges that had been made and I would need to contact the retailer directly to request a refund.

I then questioned him about what I could do to prevent my mobile from being charged further, he stated that the only options were that I be more careful with my browsing in future or alternatively I change my mobile number.

Given I didn’t intentionally browse to this site and changing my mobile number really would be a last resort, I have had my current number for over 10 years and use it for business I asked what preventative measures were in place to prevent customers from being exploited against known scams such as this.

I asked if scams such as this are known does O2 not query such transactions? the answer was no.

Is O2 able to put a block on my account preventing charges of this nature? the answer is no.

I find it quite unbelievable that there are no preventative measures in place to protect people from being charged in this way.

I compare the situation to me having a credit card, if there is any unusual activity on that credit card or if it looks as if it is being used for a known scam the credit card company will take preventative action to prevent the consumer from being exploited.

Currently I feel exceptionally vulnerable, I have been a victim of a scam, O2's advice is to contact the vendor/scammer directly to try to obtain a refund which I have attempted but as expected the phone number provided in the text message simply goes to an answerphone.

O2 is also stating that they do not have the ability to stop any further payments from this vendor which in all fairness I find astonishing and extremely concerning, potentially I could be liable for tens or hundreds of pounds worth of charges which I simply can do nothing about!

So is there a technical solution to prevent something like this happening in the future since O2 cant do anything to help me and reassure me, I’m still confused how going to a website they can obtain my phone number for instance, if I had Caller ID set to withhold would this prevent this?

Thanks

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately it's not uncommon.
You need to contact phonepayplus and report it. They will assist in the refund too.

[Anonymous]

That's aweful.

I've asked for the links inserted to be looked at.

Good luck in getting any monies back.

Edit ; added good Luck wish.

[Toby]

Hi SMMOOOOO16,

Sorry to hear this has happened. Please follow Mi5's advice on this and lets us all know how you get on.

[SMMOOOOO16]

Yes i'll pursue trying to get a refund however i think my main concern is that O2 do not have a mechanism to protect its consumers from this type of activity.

Despite having been hit by the scam and informing O2 i want to put a block on charges of this type they are unable to do anything. Thats the bit i dont understand and i guess applies to eveyone, how do you stop someone charging items against your mobile when you have been led to the site unintentionally?

Surely O2 has some preventative measures in place to protect its consumers?

[MI5]

Some people chose to sign up for this kind of service so it's difficult for networks to control.

[Anonymous]

Issue is people want to access this and other premium material so O2 will not / cannot intervene.

A few years ago the same thing happened to me but I was on payg.

After not being able to properly stop the charges following all the usual avenues I changed my mobile number which is free the 1st time.

That obviously does not guarantee it won't happen again. 😞

But at least that cuts ties 100% with that company which is latched onto your mobile number.

[Toby]

Hi SMMOOOOO16,

I totally understand the frustration behind this and I'll be feeding it back to the rest of the team. As has been said here, it can very hard to control these kinds of interactions and unfortunately it can affect innocent device users.

[SMMOOOOO16]

I appreciate there are people who will use these types of services but i think if a customer calls up and requests a block on these types of tranasctions surely O2 should be able to do something especially if the reason behind why i'm making that request is legitimate.

Changing Phone number was the sceanrio suggested to me but as stated i use this number for work and have had it for over 10 years, this would cause massive disruption for me, but i may have to do this since i'm left in a sceanrio where potentilly now they have my number they could place further unauthorised charges against my phone and i am powerless to do anything.

So are there are technical solutions which would prevent your mobile number from being made available to sites you visit unintentionally and being charged? or are we all simply at the mercy of people far cleverer than me in terms of creating these types of scams?

[MI5]

Toby has said he will feedback to the technical team. At the moment all on can do is report it to phonepayplus.
You can also sign up to tps which will help with some spammers but not maybe in this case.
You should get your money back by following their process.