topic Re: Texting Scam ! in Discussions & Feedback

Texting Scam !

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:09:46 GMT

I'm very disappointed in O2 . . .
& believe these guys are either scammers or like to lie down watching in glee as their customers get scammed!

I took a SIM card contract from O2 in Sep 2012 for £20/month
I trusted my bank account details to O2 believing they would be trustworthy !

Since then, O2 consistently charged me by direct debit at least twice the contracted amount !

Inquiring about this inconsistency today O2 told me some "third party company" had been charging me about £20/month extra by texting me useless texts every month.
They charged me for receiving them !
Notice: I did not incur these charges out of choice, It wasnt me who was doing the texting!

They had been charging me for some useless texts they made a habit of sending to me !
I had been charged extra a total of about £480 since I first took this contract back in Sept 2012
& this scam had started in in Nov 2012 almost immediately after taking my contract with O2 !

O2 told me they would speak to that scamming company & "hope it will stop doing this" !
They also told me I stand no practical chance of retrieving this money either !

How demoralising that
& how so untrust worthy of O2 to behave like that !

It happened in their watch & if I didn't check it out it could have carried on indefinitely

And why is it so difficult to view an itemised bill in their website ?!

I just think that is completely out if order & O2 should be held accountable for things like this,

because they must either have or take care to install the technology necessary for stopping customers being scammed for receiving texts that charge them through O2

Re: Texting Scam !

Bambino — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:16:45 GMT

I'm a little confused. Have you been trying to get these texts stopped or have you only enquired about it today?

Re: Texting Scam !

MI5 — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:17:21 GMT

O2 provide you a fully itemised bill in your "My o2".
You need to report your issue to PhonePayPlus who are the regulator of premium text services who may be able to help you but you should have dealt with this 2 years ago, not leave it till now.....
Help thread here http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/Are-you-fed-up-with-spam-calls-and-texts-Follow-these-steps-to/m-p/386364#M37293

Re: Texting Scam !

jonsie — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:21:41 GMT

It seems to me that you are blaming O2 for your own inadequacy in checking your bill each month. If you had taken the trouble to check it two years ago you could have saved yourself hundreds of pounds. How are O2 supposed to know you haven't requested these services.

Re: Texting Scam !

jonsie — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:33:15 GMT

I fail to see how this can be classed as a complaint. O2 can only bill for services. The complaint should be to PhonepayPlus

Re: Texting Scam !

Bambino — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:38:39 GMT

If the OP has allowed this to go on for two years without doing anything about it, I doubt he'd even get any comfort from PhonepayPlus.

Re: Texting Scam !

MI5 — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:41:20 GMT

It is very strange that one would wait 2 years to raise it as an issue ?

Re: Texting Scam !

Bambino — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:05:49 GMT

Yes. Double your normal bill every month isn't something that would go by unnoticed.

Re: Texting Scam !

jonsie — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:17:22 GMT

The texts received should have been a clue?

Re: Texting Scam !

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:19:04 GMT

Agree with the regulars on here. The OP really needs to take responsibility here. Either intentionally or not the OP has "signed up" to a premium service, perhaps by downloading a ringtone not realising it was a subscription service. Now 2 years on the OP blames the network.

Whichever network the OP was on this would have happened. It is not o2's responsibility to police everything we do on our phones.

If still being charged then the OP should contact the company and ask them to stop the service. Getting the monies back is unlikely as it should have been dealt with at the time.

Re: Texting Scam !

aldaweb — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 19:26:18 GMT

It certainly seems a long time for these to go unnoticed, or for no remedial action to be taken. The OP should have queried these charges as soon as the first bill came in not left it two whole years.

Re: Texting Scam !

Toby — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 14:57:05 GMT

Hi guys, I have received the below info regarding this issue and wanted to share it for your piece of mind. I will close off this discussion now, but feel free to PM me about the issue if you're having any more communication of this kind:

We’ve completed the investigation after reports from some customers about a new phishing scam. This attempt was triggered by a malware.

To explain a little further, if a computer/laptop is compromised, the scammers can put on key loggers and other malware, this can be done when visiting legitimate compromised web sites, clicking on phishing e-mails or using unsecured wireless networks. They can capture keystrokes and screenshots of any systems that a user logs onto. This information is then used by the scammers in targeted phishing emails and texts to make the user think they are genuinely sent from the originator because it appears to contain accurate information to the user.

To conclude, no personal data that may have been used within this phishing scam originated from O2.

We have a page on our website where customers can find out more about phishing emails, how to spot them and what they can do if they receive one that claims to be from us: http://www.o2.co.uk/help/everything-else/phishing#qs You can also check out our blog that showcase an example phishing email attempt: http://news.o2.co.uk/2014/05/29/phishing-alert-may-2014/

We take the subject of security very seriously and we’re constantly working hard to help prevent fraudulent activity from happening. Customers who receive an email they suspect is a phishing scam just need to forward it to phishing@o2.com so we can investigate and shut down these scammers.