Premium SMS scam

[andysmith1]

Bit of a rant incoming... 

A few days ago after visiting a site on my phone I was confronted with a barrage of pop-up ads which were swiftly closed. I then received the following SMS messages: 

Sender: Receipt

Message: FreeMsg: Thank you for subscribing to globalcams.world for £4.50 a week until you text STOP to 83463. HELP? 03300538665 

Sender: FreeMsg

Message: FreeMsg: Watch cams here http://source.globalcams.world/globalcams.php 

I, of course, text STOP to 83463. However, it was too late and I had already been charged the stated £4.50. 

I rang the number today and was told that I would not be charged again but as "the service was activated from the handset" they would not refund the charge. They repeated this over and over again when I pressed them for a refund. 

I spoke to o2 customer services who agreed to apply a credit to my account as a goodwill gesture. However, they said they were unable to reverse the charge or block any premium rate incoming SMS messages - they can only bar outgoing premium calls/messages. 

Two things about this absolutely stagger me: 

- o2 have clearly provided the means for this to happen. The only way a website would have been able to obtain my phone number is if o2 supplied it. I'm very interested in the technical side of this if anyone has any details? As far as I can tell o2 don't send any extra HTTP headers to all websites with any idetifying information. Perhaps just to pre-approved 'billing gateways'? However they have clearly arranged something with the company that scammed me using such 'dark patterns'. 

- There is apparently no way to block these charges. This is a lie - the network operators could easily block these charges if they want to. If I reported my debit card as lost to my bank, they would deny any attempted charges to it. Network operators could easily do this if they wanted to. 

One amusing thing to me is the actual content of the 'service' I apparently subscribed to for £4.50 a week. If you take a look it's just a bunch of embedded YouTube live streams i.e. absolutely nothing of value! 

[andysmith1]

Nope, no outgoing SMS messages were sent. I’m using an iPhone with the latest version of iOS, so unless they used some form of 0-day exploit that’s unlikely. There’s also no trace of an outgoing message on my bill.

[andysmith1]

Update: 

Having spoken to someone from the CEO's office they were able to place a block on my account for "direct to bill" charges. This is apparently separate to the barring service offered here and actionable by customer services, which only prevents outgoing premium rate calls and SMS messages - and wouldn't have prevented my charge. This is something that customer services insisted wasn't possible. @adamtemp64 it would be great if you could update your FAQ and mention this is something possible to obtain by contacting the CEO's office. 

o2 still denied that they were the ones that provided the third party company with my personal information, instead stated that the website obtained my phone number "directly from the SIM card". Again, this is not technically possible.

The technique used is called WAP billing and I'm struggling to see how this complies with the Data Protection Act - the ICO states here that in most cases a telephone number alone is enough to personally identify someone. 

[Anonymous]

I got this just yesterday!  Exactly the same situation.  Really not good to find you've been charged £4.50 for no good reason.

Going to ring O2 customer services to see if they will also refund me the money as a goodwill gesture.

What is the organisation that you reported them to?  Thanks

[MI5]

Help on this thread @Anonymous 

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-scam-What/ba-p/968023

[andysmith1]

Customer services agreed to refund me as a goodwill gesture, but were unable to put a block on further inbound premium messages. I got in touch with the company that charged me, who refused to refund me. 

After getting in touch with o2's CEO's office, I not only got the premium rate bar applied to my account, I also got a very apologetic phone call from the scammers and a postal order for £4.50 shortly after. 

[Kkkaty]

I cannot believe after two years that 02 are allowing this scam to continue. A pop up appeared on my phone informing me that I had subscribed to a gif sticker site [Removed] for £4.50 a WEEK. (Ironically I was on the Law Society's website at the time). 

Of course I don't want stupid gifs and have never downloaded anything. I assumed it was fake and didn't reply 'STOP' in case I was charged £££s. But on checking with 02 they had indeed allowed this scammer access to my bank account and I'd had £4.50 stolen from it.

 They refunded it and put a bar on my account for any further attempts. But.. WTAF? How dare 02 enable these known criminals? That's out and out theft.

I was kindly given a phone number for the company  - apparently 'Ferdamia Investment' which is well known to 02 for doing this. Apparently this is my battle to fight, not 02s. Great customer service.

And to all the idiots on here who are tempted to reply 'oh you must have clicked on a link and subscribed without knowing' (as they have on the link below) - wake up. Of COURSE I didn't, so don't try it or I'll assume you work for the scammers.

See this thread...

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/bogus-company-called-FERDAMIA-INVESTMENTS/td-p/1115579

I'd urge you all to flood O2's customer service with complaints. In the meantime I'm getting onto the BBC's Moneybox and Watchdog programmes.

Angry, angry, angry.

[andysmith1]

Aside from billing, the fact that o2 are providing their subscribers’ mobile numbers without ANY consent to some dodgy company registered in Cyprus MUST be a GDPR violation? How can it not be?

[Steveluv]

It’s outrageous that O2 are knowingly giving access to our bank accounts. I had the “you are subscribed to learning French at £9/week ...” boll***s and was told to send stop to 83463 which I did and call customer service 03300538731.... j1media.net ? . I’m an O2 business customer .. not a fool . After doing so I still got the same text every week . It’s something I think we need to be either compensated for or O2 sued for privacy rights .. my situation has still not being resolved and I’m looking into on a legal level with privacy rights high on the agenda at the moment ...

[Steveluv]

Had some text from Chess saying to call 0800 688 8858 to sort problem ? Will call Monday but will leave O2 as soon as after this ... it’s totally outrageous 

[MI5]

@Steveluv EE offer a 2 step verification process for these subscriptions so that's something worth considering when changing networks. Vodafone and Three are still just as vulnerable as O2 for these scams.