Charged for service I never signed up for.

[ro1]

Hi everyone,

so last night I received the following text from number 65065:

“FreeMsg: Thank you for subscribing to unlimited access to gaming portal for £4.50 from Lorena Medienagentur until you text STOP to 65065. HELP? 02071369915. Charge applied to mobile phone bill.”

I googled to find out what one should do if they receive such a text and most people said to send STOP to that number and then ask for a refund if you’ve been charged. So I sent STOP to that number and I received another text saying my subscription has been terminated. Today I checked my O2 app and I saw that I was charged 4.50 for the service and 0.13 for the STOP text I sent.
I called O2 customer service to ask for a refund but they gave me the number 03303326254 to call the service provider and told me to ask them for a refund. So I called that number and they said they only provide the technical service for the service provider and gave me the number 02021369915 to ask for a refund. So I called that number and they gave me the email address gb-metrogames@mobile-help.org to send them an email with my number and ask for a refund which I just did.

Is that how it works? I don’t know if I’ll even hear back from that email or how the refund works because the guy from the last number I called said that the refund won’t go to my phone bill and that there is a certain refund process.

Does anyone know if there’s anything else I can do?

Cheers

[gmarkj · Accepted solution]

It depends on if you want to use the premium message service in the future.
If no, then call o2 again on 202 and ask for a bar on them.
If yes, then you just need to be careful what links you click on.
Further reading about the problem and what to do can be found in the below links:
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-s...
https://www.o2.co.uk/charge-to-mobile
https://payforitsucks.co.uk/o2-payforit-faq/
https://payforitsucks.co.uk/phone-paid-services-authority-consultation-on-subscription-services/

There is also a petition asking for o2 to move to a 2 stage verification that you want these here:
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-and-Feedback/Premium-rate-services-petition-to-O2/td-p/118...

[TallTrees]

Hi @ro1 

Very sorry that you are a victim of a scam charge call.  The O2 Community are trying to stop this

however it is certainly up to all individuals on a Mobile Service to be extra vigilant and not

press any unusual or tempting links.

Best of luck

[Payforit_Sucks]

---

@ro1 wrote:
Hi everyone,

so last night I received the following text from number 65065:

“FreeMsg: Thank you for subscribing to unlimited access to gaming portal for £4.50 from Lorena Medienagentur until you text STOP to 65065. HELP? 02071369915. Charge applied to mobile phone bill.”

I googled to find out what one should do if they receive such a text and most people said to send STOP to that number and then ask for a refund if you’ve been charged. So I sent STOP to that number and I received another text saying my subscription has been terminated. Today I checked my O2 app and I saw that I was charged 4.50 for the service and 0.13 for the STOP text I sent.
I called O2 customer service to ask for a refund but they gave me the number 03303326254 to call the service provider and told me to ask them for a refund. So I called that number and they said they only provide the technical service for the service provider and gave me the number 02021369915 to ask for a refund. So I called that number and they gave me the email address gb-metrogames@mobile-help.org to send them an email with my number and ask for a refund which I just did.

Is that how it works? I don’t know if I’ll even hear back from that email or how the refund works because the guy from the last number I called said that the refund won’t go to my phone bill and that there is a certain refund process.

Does anyone know if there’s anything else I can do?

Cheers

---

@ro1 

Keep evidence of the steps you have taken to obtain a refund. It sounds as though you have had the usual run-around that consumers experience when they are a victim of these scams.

I haven't heard of this service before, and it doesn't appear to be properly registered with the regulator.

It would be worth contacting the regulator to query this, and also to obtain the correct contact details for this service. https://psauthority.org.uk/for-consumers/contact-us-for-consumers

If you fail to get a response within a reasonable period, or you are refused a full refund, immediately exercise your right to escalate the matter to O2.

If O2 refuse to allow you to do this, raise the matter as a formal complaint, as they have a legal obligation to help in these circumstances.

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'.

These companies 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 scammers.

I hope you manage to resolve this matter. These scams are a disgrace to the mobile communications industry and O2 should be doing more to assist affected customers and to protect them from these scams.

[PaulCharlton4]

Afternoon.
Similar thing here.
Got charged 3 times (£4-50 eachtime). Contacted 02 chat, explained situation, they said they'd put a block on the service on my account, also gave me a phone number to call.
Looked up the company on line (Globway BV), got their email address and sent 2 emails. Got reply an hour ago asking for screenshots of the number involved and the bill/invoice regarding my quiery. Sent these, waiting for response.
Will update if and when I get a reply......

[Huckleberry]

Hi, 

Did you get a reply?

I have just seen that I've been charged at least £54 by this company. 

I'm not sure where or who t cpmplain to first!?

[MI5]

@Huckleberry 

All advice is on the thread above. 

Just follow the help and you'll get your refund.

[jonsie]

Speak with customer service first and then read through the sites below if you get no satisfaction from them.

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-s...
https://www.o2.co.uk/charge-to-mobile
https://payforitsucks.co.uk/o2-payforit-faq/
https://payforitsucks.co.uk/phone-paid-services-authority-consultation-on-subscription-services/