scam

[Kevag]

Hi All, I got a dodgy looking text the other day which i immediately deleted, just looked at my bill and have been charged an extra £4.50 by a company called PlayBay bv, i have no knowledge of this, can i stop them charging me in the future and how do i do it. Please Help! many thanks

[Kevag]

thank you all for your imput

[Kevag]

spoke to o2 customer service and they were very helpful, hopefully all sorted. thank you all.

[MI5]

Good news

[jonsie]

Good to hear @Kevag

[Anglia]

I have also been scammed this way - 81777 charged £3.75.  02 have now blocked all premium numbers but refuse to give me a refund of £3.75 even though they admitted it is a scam. Should all phone companies be held responsible and not the consumers?

[BlasterDawg]

Agreed!  Why does O2 let KNOWN scammers charge to our accounts?  Like ThumbTiger? What the hell is that and why do they need £4.50 a week.  I have tried to stop ThumbTiger but it doesn't seem to work.  I have called, texted, etc.  And O2 just says or sorry you must have signed up for a SCAM, that we support as we take money from your account, take our cut and then the rest past on the the scammer.  

Yes , now they have offered the block.  I am still out about £100. O2 knows it is in the wrong but enjoys the extra fees from the companies who scam us.  

[Cleoriff]

@BlasterDawg

Hopefully one of our members @Payforit_Sucks can help with additional advice here?

[Payforit_Sucks]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

@BlasterDawg

Hopefully one of our members @Payforit_Sucks can help with additional advice here?

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@BlasterDawg@Anglia

The attitude of O2 does seem to vary depending on who deals with your case. It would be good to see more consistency. It's probably worth trying to escalate your issue within customer services, for example by asking to discuss your case with a manager.

Under the Payforit rules, when you get charges from a payforit scam you first need to try to make contact with the scammers. Try to get EVIDENCE that you have done this by recording phone calls and/or asking to deal with the matter in writing.

Once you have done this, if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your "discussion" with the scammers, under the rules you ARE entitled to esclate your complaint to O2.

It seems that O2 are not happy to meet their obligations in this respect, so you may need to go to the formal complaints procedure to force them to do so. They are required to INVESTIGATE and TAKE A DECISION on your case. If they fail to investigate (for example their "investigation" doesn't explain how you came to be "subscribed") this would also be cause for a formal complaint.

O2 take 30% of the proceeds from these scams, so it is reasonable to expect them to do some work for their money!

You might also want to remind O2 of the words of reassurance on their website concerning the "charge to mobile" (payforit) system.

If the company that took your money is UK based and refuses to refund, another approach is to use the Small Claims procedure to recover your money. This approach has been very successful in the past year and is detailed on the payforitsucks.co.uk website.

Another line of attack is using the possible breach of GDPR. If you google "payforitsucks gdpr issues" you will find information about this approach.

It is unfortunate that O2 allow scam companies to take money from their customers and the sit on their hands and do nothing to assist the victims. There is ample evidence that consumers are being auto-subscribed these services through exploits embedded in web pages. O2 should do the same as EE and call a halt to their collusion with the scammers.

[BlasterDawg]

Thank you. All very useful information.