topic Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast in Android

£3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

Jester88 — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 13:45:51 GMT

My sister was on facebook on her smartphone when she came across a video clip. She saw a message saying that payment would be taken for watching so she got out of that screen and back to home.

But it now appears she was charged £3 by Watch It for something described at TVMulticst.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

MI5 — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 13:47:27 GMT

See help here for dealing with premium charges
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-scam-What/td-p/968023

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 14:44:09 GMT

As well as all the good advice in the guides you'l need to (severely) restrict Facebook permission on the phone and, it's Apps and App permissions in Facebook settings to prevent this from happening again.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

gmarkj — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:34:15 GMT

Or do the sensible thing and scrape FB altogether and use the mobile web page...

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

Cleoriff — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 16:57:35 GMT

TV Multicast is a live video streaming service and the issue is some people are willing to pay for it.

@Jester88I hope your sister can get the issue resolved but I feel she would have to prove that

1) She didn't opt in and

2) She didn't actually watch the video on offer

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

Jester88 — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 21:29:01 GMT

I will let her know that she needs to do that.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

Jester88 — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 21:31:15 GMT

I know she didn't actually watch the video. But would the opt-in choice come before the request for payment?

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

MI5 — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 21:34:03 GMT

They are essentially scams.
Payment isn't actually requested and just clicking the link generates the payment process.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

NickH — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:45:37 GMT

I have got caught like this and have been charged £9 for a service I didn't want. I am asking for my £9 back failing which I fully intend contacting the Information Commissioner because I am responsible for GDPR with a local organisation and have been trained in it. Under the GDPR Regulations that came in on 25th May the principle was established that opting out was not now appropriate. For people to subscribe to something they must opt in. I have a text which rather belatedly I have discovered says that I have a free trial and that I will be charged £3 a week unless I text STOP. This in my view is a breach of the GDPR regulations. Two issues here:-

1) Watch It breaching the regulations.

2) How did Watch It get my mobile number.

Essentailly I have asked for my £9 back by returen, lest say within the next 24 hours or I will report a suspected breach naming both Watch It and O2.

I may be wrong and perhaps there is a legal loophole that I have not spotted. However this is still sharp practice and dependent upon how Watch It and O2 respond, my next port of call could be Trading Stanadrs via the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

MI5 — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:48:38 GMT

@NickH An excellent website here explaining how the scam works https://payforitsucks.co.uk/

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

NickH — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:54:52 GMT

Good advice thanks. £9 is no big deal, its more the principle of the thing. They have actually said they will refund my £9 providing I send proof of my address. You can guess what my answer was to that! I told them I want £9 with no further action on my part.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

CR — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 21:38:22 GMT

Hi Nick, how did you get in with this in the end as they have done the same and are asking the same of my disabled son. He has no bills in his name anyway so cannot provide the ‘proof’ they are asking for

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

PeteF1 — Sun, 09 Dec 2018 14:47:15 GMT

I've just been scammed like this as well, and have found various posts on this, but none seem to have a 'conclusion', so I'll post progress here for info.

Story so far:

7th Dec - Watch It texted me with the same texts as have been posted here before, saying I had until 19:33 on 8th to cancel

8th Dec - after researching online, decided it was safe to text STOP to 62442, and did so at 10:59 (is well before their deadline) and got charged 10p for the text. OK so far

9th Dec - got £3 charge added to my O2 bill. No longer OK! After more research, decided it was safe to phone them on 03308085223, and did so. In spite of being outside office hours (9 - 7 Mon - Fri), I went through their automated process to cancel, which concluded with their auto-voice saying "you will not be charged any more", and then received a text from them saying "you have been unsubscribed". Will see what happens next, and update here.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

PeteF1 — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 10:47:06 GMT

10th Dec am - phoned Watch it, they answered very quickly and confirmed my cancellation, and said that as a gesture of good will (!!!), they would refund me, and would send me an email. This arrived just minutes later, asking for proof of address - err, I dont think I'll be doing that!! Phoned them back, and they said I should reply acordingly to the email, which I have now done, telling them they need to use another method to refund, and that I was well aware of Consumer Rights etc.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

PeteF1 — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 16:57:28 GMT

20th Dec - they asked again for proof of address for sending a refund, and I again refused to send anything official, but I told them my address anyway. They replied 'thanks', and said a cheque would be sent I the next 10 days. Which seemed fine to me :-).
Bizarrely tho, the next day, the charge was backed out from my O2 bill! There wasn't a £3 credit to compensate, but the charge had completely disappeared! So was happy with that as well.
Just to confuse further, they then sent me a text saying a cheque had been sent - and the next day, sent me another text saying they couldn't send a cheque, but would refund instead.
So I'm not sure they know what they are doing - but I seem to have been successfully un-subscribed and successfully refunded, for the cost of one 10p text, two free inclusive-minutes phone calls, and two emails.
Verdict: although it was a surprise to be billed in the first place, it has been satisfactorily and quickly resolved.

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

Cleoriff — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:20:58 GMT

That's great news @PeteF1

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

PeteF1 — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 11:54:25 GMT

21st Dec - not only have they backed-out the original charge (as per my previous post), I have just received the cheque that they said they could not issue! So at present, I am £2:90 in profit from this carry-on - I have a £3 cheque, which will nicely cover the 10p charge for the 'stop' text!

Re: £3 charge from Watch It for TVMulticast

jonsie — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 22:09:04 GMT

Isn't there a wonderful sense of satisfaction when the scammers get scammed