Additional charges

[aysha114a]

I have had £4.50 charged to my account for something called “lasevia limited”. I have no idea what this is and have made no such purchase. Can anyone help with what this is?

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[Cleoriff · Accepted solution]

hi @aysha114a you may have clicked on a link and inadvertantly signed up for something.

Check out this guide which explains what you need to do

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-s...

I have searched on Google and it appears to be some sort of competition company (hidden within a different name) http://servicechecker.comreg.ie/PR6468/CHANCES_TO_WIN

[aysha114a]

Thank you Cleoriff.

I think it is a scam. On the date the money was charged to my o2 account, I received an email saying thank you for your weekly subscription to “books4you” and told me to text stop to cancel it. I text stop although I didn’t recognise the subscription in the first place. They charged me both the £4.50 plus another charge to get it stopped!

[Cleoriff]

You need to follow the advice in the link about scams and the action to be taken.

Also contact the company directly and ask them for a refund and to remove your subscription from their database

[Payforit_Sucks]

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@aysha114awrote:
Thank you Cleoriff.

I think it is a scam. On the date the money was charged to my o2 account, I received an email saying thank you for your weekly subscription to “books4you” and told me to text stop to cancel it. I text stop although I didn’t recognise the subscription in the first place. They charged me both the £4.50 plus another charge to get it stopped!

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I'm sorry you have become a victim of one of these payforit scams. It is quite possible that your number was provided via a rogue App on your ‘phone, or you may have clicked on an innocent looking Ad while browsing the web.

You need to be aware that while you are connected to the internet via mobile data, your number may be passed by O2 to third parties for charging purposes. The mechanism by which this happens is called 'Payforit'.  This can’t happen while you are connected by WiFi.

Once the third party has your number they can send you chargeable text messages and, very unfairly in my opinion, it will be your job to argue for a refund!

The Payforit mechanism was intended to make it easy for consumers to purchase goods and services and have them charged to their 'phone bill. Unfortunately Payforit has proven to be very insecure and hardly a day goes by without someone reporting another scam.

I have put details of how to deal with these scams on my website at http://payforitsucks.co.uk. 

Unfortunately O2 and all of the other networks have no incentive to bring these scams to an end, as they receive a share of the income from them.

The steps you ought to be taking are (with links to detailed instructions):

1. Stop further charges being made

2. Get a refund of any charges already taken

3. Complain to the Phone-paid Services Authority

4. Protect yourself from further 'charge to bill' scams

Let me know if can offer any further help or advice. These scams are a disgrace to the mobile communications industry.

FWIW you can leave a review of Lasevia.com on Trustpilot!

Paul

http://payforitsucks.co.uk

[MI5]

Great post Paul, very helpful.

[jonsie]

I'm a little intrigued by what you say about it can't happen on wifi. 

[SCT2018]

I too have just realised that I have been subject to this scam. I got the text messages but thought it was a load of nonsense! That was until I received my bill. I’ve not signed up to anything like this. O2 have not been the most helpful in getting a resolution. As these posted are recent, is this a scam aimed at O2 customers - doesn’t show anywhere else?! This needs to stop. Anyone tried contacting the company? I’m not letting this lay. Completely unfair!

[MI5]

Follow the advice above and you should be fine getting your money back.
Without doubt complain to the PSA as that is the only way they can build a profile of these scammers.

[Payforit_Sucks]

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@jonsie wrote:

I'm a little intrigued by what you say about it can't happen on wifi. 

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This can't happen while you are connected by WiFi as O2 are unable to provide the third party with your number. If connected by WiFi O2 are unaware of your web browsing, so don't know when you visit a scammers link.

Payforit can still be used to make payments via WiFi, but in this case the mechanism is considerably more secure.

Most of these scams could be eliminated immediately if O2 stopped providing subscribers numbers to third parties via 'Payforit'.

The 'Payforit' mechanism is explained in detail here.

Page 10 describes the (insecure) method used when connected via mobile data. Note that in this case:

"At the same time, the mobile number of the consumer is transferred to the API by theconsumer’s mobile network."

Note that page 10 describes how it is supposed to work. Unfortunately the limited safeguards provided are all to easy for scammers to circumvent..

Page 19 deals with some of the alternative mechanisms used when the consumer is not connected to the mobile network. None of these mechanisms seem to pose a serious risk of consumers being signed up 'inadvertently'.The consumer has to key in their phone number and send or reply to a text in order to authorise the payment.