£4.50 text scam

[Textscam]

Hi,

I have received a text from a website called gifvids.club stating I have subscribed and this will cost £4.50 per week. I never saw the original text on 02 September as it was sent at midnight. But this morning I've had another one and when I checked my o2 account they have taken £4.50 each week in September!
I have no idea what this is, ive never seen the website before and I'm so mad!
I've now text stop to the number provided to unsubscribe but there are no available t+C's so I have no idea how much this stop text has cost.

Has anybody else experienced this?

Many thanks in advance.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Textscam 

Have a look at the help here https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-s... and here https://payforitsucks.co.uk/

[jonsie]

You will have received s text message from the short code   83463 so reply with the word STOP. There is also  a customer service number to call and ask them to refund you 

 "Thank you for subscribing to Gifvids.club for £4.50 every week from Technifun Ltd until you text STOP to 83463. HELP? 03300535872"

Also a helpful site here

https://payforitsucks.co.uk

Customer care number:	0330 053 5833
Customer care email:	customercare @ davosmedia.eu

[chrisSz]

Why is O2 allowing this charge to stand? It is quite obvious I do not get anything for the money these sw!nes take. Has this been reported to Ofcom? There seems quite a few of these vultures around, I can't believe they can steal my money like that.

[MI5]

We can't believe it either but O2 still seem to be able to sleep well at night!

[Payforit_Sucks]

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@chrisSz wrote:

Why is O2 allowing this charge to stand? It is quite obvious I do not get anything for the money these sw!nes take. Has this been reported to Ofcom? There seems quite a few of these vultures around, I can't believe they can steal my money like that.

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@chrisSz 

It's not O2 that is allowing these charges to stand, it's consumers. There are mechanisms for challenging these charges. They do involve a lot of effort, but they have been proven to work. I'm not aware of any consumer who has followed these mechanisms and has failed to obtain a full refund.

Of course, it shouldn't be this difficult to resolve issues with these "services", but that' how it is at present. It is illegal to take money without consent and the law is on the consumer's side. But unfortunately  O2 leave it to the consumer to enforce their rights (in the hope and expectation that they will give up!).

The best approach seems to be:

• The first step is to identify the company that took your money.
• Then ensure the charges are stopped and contact the company to ensure no further charges are made and to insist on a FULL refund. Get evidence that you have done this, preferably in writing, but alternatively by recording calls.
• If a full refund is refused, there are two main routes to resolving the situation

You can proceed to use the Small Claims procedure to take action against the company. This works well if the company is UK based.

If the company is not based in the UK, or if you prefer to force O2 to take action, you are entitled to refer the matter back to O2 provided you can show that you have discussed the dispute with the third party company.

O2 have provided OFCOM with details of their procedure for this:

It has to be said that there is not much evidence of O2 following this procedure!

It's also worth reminding O2 of the words on their website regarding "charge to mobile". O2 sometimes try to claim that these are Premium Texts - they are not. The texts carry no charges and are prefixed "Freemsg:" to denote this. Payforit charges are applied directly to your mobile bill (or your airtime credit on PAYG).

If O2 fail to follow these procedures you should escalate your case and ultimately insist on a deadlock letter. You can then look at either going to the ombudsman, or (better in my view) using the Small Claims procedure to claim your losses from O2 citing their negligence, not just in allowing the fraud to happen, but in failing to follow their own procedures.

None of the above precludes you from making life uncomfortable for O2 and the scammers by

• Reporting the fraudulent charges to the regulator (the Phone-paid Services Authority)
• Making a complaint under GDPR that O2 have failed to protect your personal data by releasing your phone number to a third party which has then been used to make fraudulent charges.