@Charges wrote:
Hi
I received the following text...
FreeMsg: Thanks for subscribing to New Level Games from BonaFideMobile. Unlimited games FREE for 24hrs & then £4.50 every week until you text STOP NLG to 83463. HELP? 03300535844 or cs@bonafidemobile.com. Go to http://uk.newlevelgames.com Charge applied to mobile phone bill from my iPhone
And it would appear that £4.50 has been charged to my bill, how do I cancel this charge and any future charges please
Many thanks
@Charges
Hmm. There has been a spate of complaints about this “service” in the past week on the GiffGaff forums as well.
New Level Games is a Payforit "service" using shortcode 83463 and operated by a company called BonaFide Mobile.
I suspect we're going to see many more complaints about BonaFide Mobile.
You should be able to stop the charges by texting "STOP ALL" to 83463 (will cost about 10p) or by calling them on 03300535844.
You can check (and probably cancel) the subscription through this website https://www.mobileservicesupport.co.uk/
You can also email them at cs@bonafidemobile.com.
Bona Fide Mobile Ltd
3-4 Market Place
Wokingham
RG40 1AL
This "service" has a 24 hour cooling off period, so if you deal with it quickly you may be able to stop the charges before any money is taken.
There have been a number of reports of fraudulent signups to this service in recent days.
This post on the GiffGaff forum is interesting as it shows the mechanism of a clearly fraudulent signup which did not have the two step signup that O2 always refer to. You may have had a similar experience.
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/New-level-games/m-p/23235500
It really is time that O2 stopped pretending that there isn't a problem here. A legitimate signup requires at least 2 steps with information about the contract they are entering in to clearly displayed to the consumer at each stage. This doesn't appear to be happening with this.
You need to be aware that O2 leak your phone number to third parties when you access the internet using mobile data, and this is probably how your number was acquired in order to make these charges. The system which does this is called 'Payforit'.
"Services" like this use vulnerabilities of the 'Payforit' system to obtain consumers numbers and sign them up to bogus subscriptions. Simply closing an innocent looking popup can pass your number to these companies and result in fraudulent charges.
You should also report this scam to the regulator: https://psauthority.org.uk/for-consumers/report-an-issue.
Make sure that O2 apply a "charge to mobile" bar to your account, so that you don't suffer any further Payforit scams.
I hope you manage to resolve this matter. This fraud is a disgrace to the mobile communications industry and O2 should be doing more to assist affected members and to protect members.
Paul
