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SCAM gets thru block

Mi-Amigo
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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.

animated-elephant-image-0327



Girl in a jacket


Some people see things as they are and ask "Why?"; I dream of things that never were and ask "Why not?"
Robert Kennedy.

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TallTrees
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Thank you @MI5 

That spells it out!  

maybe @Cleoriff 

could include this explanation ~ 

this information (you have posted) is very important.

Thank you TallTrees

 



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TallTrees
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Hi @Cleoriff 

That will be good.  It will no doubt take some time yet but clarification is important

about various aspects, I was also working under the "delusion" that Bars worked on

everythingclown

Thanks cleo for taking your time to try and get this right for the o2 customers.

I would also like to see the 2 step verification that @MI5  mentioned in his post

adopted by o2.  Surely o2 should do this.

 

(edited because I don't know whether I am under a delusion or if it is an illustionrofl)

 



HAPPINESS IS BEE SHAPED

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Cleoriff
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@TallTrees wrote:

Thank you @MI5 

That spells it out!  

maybe @Cleoriff 

could include this explanation ~ 

this information (you have posted) is very important.

Thank you TallTrees

 


@TallTrees 

I won't be including anything in an O2 guide about what other networks do.

The guide isn't about Payforit scams alone. I wouldn't be the person to write such a guide anyway.

We already have a community guide written by @adamtemp64  about these scams.

 

Overall, my guide is called 'Tips to avoid unexpected charges on your Bill'

Currently it has 9 subsections. Payforit is just one of those nine. thumbsup

 

Veritas Numquam Perit

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TallTrees
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Absolutely @Cleoriff 

 

Unfortunately there are very many scams.

 

 

What I didn't understand was what @MI5  posted 

about the amount of money falls under the guide

and interestingly a note of the other providers

who are offering a 2 step verification.

 

It is very time consuming to write a guide like you are proposing to to "cleo"

and you are to be commended for that.

 

Am I right, though, in thinking that Payforit are the main devils here?

After putting on Bars which may prevent "others" ?

 

Bye for now TallTrees



HAPPINESS IS BEE SHAPED

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Cleoriff
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@TallTrees 

Firstly, many of us have been asking O2 for ages to apply a 2 step verification process. It isn't a new request. They haven't done it, therefore I can't include it in the guide I'm writing. I'm writing a guide, not a petition. 

 

As I said, my guide will be quite generalised and not just about payforit scams. 

If I wrote reams about payforit scams, then the guide wouldn't meet the brief I was set by the Community Managers.

Veritas Numquam Perit

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Payforit_Sucks
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@Mi-Amigo wrote:

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.


@Mi-Amigo 

 

Can you clarify? Was £4.50 actually taken from your account? Or did you send a STOP message within the free trial period, thus avoiding any deduction.

 

If no money was taken, it may be that the charge bar only works when the scam company attempts to make a charge to your account. This is certainly the case for PAYG customers. They receive texts notifying them of charges, but if they have no airtime credit the charges cannot be taken.

 

I don't have an O2 account so I am unable to perform any tests myself. Perhaps some one here can test the "charge to bill" bar. O2 have assured me that it DOES work, and so far there is no solid evdence that it doesn't. I have come to the conclusio hat the customer services staff (not just of O2, but of all te networks) are pretty clueless about Payforit. They keep referring to Premium Texts which is not what these charges are! Premium Texts cannot be stopped, which is why these subsription services are no longer allowed to use them.

There is currently a lot of media interest in these scams, so it would be really useful to have  definitive and verified answer.

 

O2 have previously stated with complete clarity that their "charge to mobile" bar is effective against Payforit charges. If this is not the case we need to know.

 

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

Screenshot 20**Personal info** 08.19.41.png

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Mi-Amigo
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@Cleoriff wrote:

 

If I was @Mi-Amigo  I would be contacting customer services and asking if these bars have been applied to his account as he requested.


Thank you for the suggestion @Cleoriff 

A couple of points. I only have 02 for mobile broadband, so calling CS would cost and don`t have sufficient credit on phone, so would have to contact CS via Chat, which I have read most advise not to do. As @Marjo sorted out problem I had with poor service from Gurus, and she was/is dealing with the guide, I will wait until see returns and ask her if she can investigate on my behalf.

However, as @MI5 points out, even if there are bars on my account, I have been, and still could be open to these scams.

While I appreciate the guide @Cleoriff is working on cannot include everything about Payforit, could it not include a warning - so as customers are aware that they might see unexpected charges?

animated-elephant-image-0327



Girl in a jacket


Some people see things as they are and ask "Why?"; I dream of things that never were and ask "Why not?"
Robert Kennedy.

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Cleoriff
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@Mi-Amigo 

It does include a warning.

NOT the sort of warning you might be asking for though. It's a generalised warning advising people not to click on links on social media.. FB for example, as these can and often do sign you up for a scam.

 

I do have to keep reiterating MY guide is NOT just about Payforit Scams, we already have a full community guide in place about that and a link to @Payforit_Sucks  site.

 

I have included a link to that guide in mine.

 

It needs to be remembered, I could spend hours advising people about the pitfall of additional charges with Travel Abroad. I can't do that either. All I can do is give it a mention and a link to it... in relation to avoiding unexpected charges to your bill.

Veritas Numquam Perit

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Payforit_Sucks
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@TallTrees wrote:

Absolutely @Cleoriff 

 

Unfortunately there are very many scams.

 

 

What I didn't understand was what @MI5  posted 

about the amount of money falls under the guide

and interestingly a note of the other providers

who are offering a 2 step verification.

 

It is very time consuming to write a guide like you are proposing to to "cleo"

and you are to be commended for that.

 

Am I right, though, in thinking that Payforit are the main devils here?

After putting on Bars which may prevent "others" ?

 

Bye for now TallTrees


To clarify the current rules (which are being widely ignored and circumvented):

 

All Payforit services are required to use two step verification. This simply means that the consumer is showed a "landing page" where information regarding the "subscription" is displayed with a "subscribe" button. Pressing the "subscribe" button takes you to a second "confirmation" screen wirh a button labelled with something like "confirm this charge to your mobile account". Pressing this button initites the subsription.

Unfortunately, thee safeguards are easily sidestepped, and it is possible to embed code in a web page which silently signs a consumer up to a service with a single click on an unrelated link.

 

Services charging more than £4.50 per week are required to use two factor authorisation. In this case, the landing page is the same, but pressing the subscribe button sends a PIN code to the subscriber's handset. This PIN then needs to be entered correctly to confirm the subscription. This process is much harder to circumvent (but not impossible) to circumvent.

 

EE now require two factor authorisation for ALL Payforit subscriptions. This appers to have been very effective in stopping scam subscriptions. Reportedly, one of the reasons for this is that companies have stopped offering their "services" through EE.

 

If the current PSA proposals are implemented, all services will be required to use wo factor authorisation. This will apply to ALL networks, so O2 will have to clean up its act!

 

A look at some of the worst offenders (Lasevia Ltd, Ferdamia Ltd, Jammitup) shows that these scams appear to be exclusive to the O2 network (and Giffaff). Might it be that the other networks are a bit more fussy about who they do business with?

 

 

 

 

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TallTrees
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understood @Cleoriff 

Look forward to reading it when completed ~ yahoo



HAPPINESS IS BEE SHAPED

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