SCAM gets thru block

[Mi-Amigo]

After falling victim to one of the scam message, I took the advise from members of the Community and contacted 02 Customer Services, who put a bar on all direct to Bill debits and bar Premium Rates....

However, today, purely by chance I checked my message in-box and found:

65065 -  Freemsg: Lorena Medienagen fur - free trial ends [date] then £4.50 per week, unless STOP to 65065.

Given the date of message and when I saw it, there is a chance that I could be billed for one week.

I sent STOP to 65065 and got an instant retur msg:

STOP Payforit Freemsg subscription to Metro Games ended. Help: 0207 369915.

I have never subscribed [or linked] to Metro Games and/or Lorena Medienagen.

How did this get through the supposed blocks which is meant to be in place on my 02 account?

This is worrying and highlights the need for 02 to drop their "trusted partners" and the scams.

[MI5]

Before the verdict is in from the "Guru" may I remind everyone of the piffle received previously from the experts at O2 which we all decreed as tosh.
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-and-Feedback/Premium-rate-services-petition-to-O2/td-p/118...

[Marjo]

Good morning @Mi-Amigo , thanks for tagging us, we'll have a look at this for you, and I'll drop you a PM today to discuss in more detail. I'll get to your PM as well shortly @Cleoriff ! 

[Cleoriff]

Thanks @Marjo, there's no rush.

I've put the guide on hold for now. As it's a 'generalised guide' I don't expect I will be changing much of the original... 

[Glory1]

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@Payforit_Sucks wrote:

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Incidentally, I undersand that O2 refuse to apply the "charge to mobile" bar to business accounts. Can anyone confirm this?

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Yes, I can confirm that as I requested the bar to be put on my account, which is a business account. The advisor I was speaking to had never even heard of such a bar. And when I told her bars had been placed on consumer accounts, I was told "ah well we don't have anything like that for business accounts"!

[Mi-Amigo]

Thanks @Marjo 

Any further info you need from me please ask in pm.

[Payforit_Sucks]

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@Mi-Amigo wrote:

@Martin-O2; @Marjo ; @EmilieT 

Hi, hope you had a good break.

Could I please ask if one of you could please inquire on my behalf if the two blocks have been applied to my 02 account.

Also could you confirm whether or not these blocks prevent third-parties taking money from my account - as @MI5 said the blocks do not prevent Payforit; but @Payforit_Sucks said that it is possible that such companies may send sms but the block then kicks in to prevent Payforit taking money from my account.

lus, either way, these companies still send sms and I have to send STOP, for which I am charged.

Thanks for any help you can give.

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@Mi-Amigo I'll be interested to see whether O2 are able to finally give a definitive explanation of how the charge to mobile bar actually works. My guess is that it won't stop the subscription texts, but that it will stop the charges. In that case, the subscription texts can be safely ignored and STOP texts don't need to be sent. It's not entirely satisfactory, but arguably it works!

I would be much better if O2 just allowed customers to opt out of having their numbers leaked to these dubious "third parties" via Payforit, in a way that I doubt to be GDPR compliant. Better still, customers could be asked whether they want to opt in to this crazy, insecure system. In the unlikely event that consumers want companies like Lasevia Ltd and SB7 Mobile Ltd to have their numbers for charging purposes, they are capable of suppying the numbers themselves! With increasing media interest in Payforit scams, I hope O2 are ready to defend their position in allowing these companies to plunder their customers' funds. They haven't made any effort so far!

[Demonyx]

Well just received this exact same text a couple of minutes ago, had similar around 3 and 6 months ago and guess what I had to pay the charge was told non-stop by various "gurus" and "customer service" that I must have signed up for something without knowing.

Weird for someone employed as an IT manager to not have a clue how to sign up for or not sign up for a service when it is a KNOWN payforit scam, but just received the same message again and again from customer service, last time was a 25 minute discussion where I ended up paying the bill as they point blank refused to acknowledge the scam

@Martin-O2; @Marjo ; @EmilieT 

I have asked for all premium services to be disabled on all 3 of my consumer accounts in the past and been told there is  a £0 spend cap in place on all 3 but you do not have the facility to "bar" payforit or freemsg, weirdly most other operators have this facility, so who is telling the truth?

[MI5]

@Demonyx 

O2 refuse to block Payforit charges as they believe they currently meet the Ofcom guidelines, which means they are free to take 30% of the money scammed from customers.
Follow the advice here https://payforitsucks.co.uk/o2-payforit-faq/ 

You may also be interested in this discussion https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-and-Feedback/Premium-rate-services-petition-to-O2/td-p/118...

[Demonyx]

well that is an absolute disgrace, must be time for me to move my accounts tbh have been reading forums in EE and they block payforit

[MI5]

Yeah, and so do Vodafone.