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

[jonsie]

That would work....as long as it's not just a mailing address!

[MI5]

I think it's high time that O2 took the lead here with these kinds of shenanigans and put some blocking process in place.
I fully understand that it's not O2's responsibility, per se but surely a little bit of pro-activity would go a long way with customer confidence?

[jonsie]

There should be an opt in/opt out choice for these services with the default as opt out. After all they can place a premium bar on accounts.

[MI5]

Maybe something @Toby can feedback.....?

[Anonymous]

Possibly something ALL Networks should tackle.

[MI5]

Not too fussed what other networks do as this is an O2 discussion place......

[jonsie]

It would end these scams and see most of the companies closed down. We, as customers, need adequate protection from unwittingly suffering charges. It's not as though it's a couple of pounds either!

[MI5]

Be nice if O2 could take the lead at least but I suspect some kind of legislation may be put in place sooner or later the way things are going.....

[Toby]

Hi guys,

I shall feed back your views on this to the team. If you have any others, have a discussion here or create a specific discussion thread.

[jonsie]

Thanks @Toby that's certainly a start.