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Hidden charges

Azzajones77
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My wife had said recently she'd been running out of data and was having to top up more often, so I thought I would check her Bill and see just how much extra she was spending as we could always upgrade earlier to get more allowance.
It was then I noticed her bills have more than doubled in the last 2 months, but not because of increased data but charges to premium rate service SB7 and O2Uk? £3 to £4.12 per transaction several times a week.
Would have expected a company such as O2 to have noted this trend and given a courtesy call of the dramatic increase in monthly charge. Disappointed
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Bambino
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Bambino
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MI5
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Some excellent help here http://payforitsucks.co.uk/
I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

Currently using:
Pixel 7a (O2 & Lyca), One Plus 6 (Sfr), iPhone 12 Pro Max (Vodafone)
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Anonymous
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@Azzajones77 It’s nothing to do with O2. You will need to follow the advice in the link & contact the company charging you & ask to be refunded. O2 can then put a bar on your account to stop premium charges 

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Anonymous
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@Azzajones77 wrote:

Would have expected a company such as O2 to have noted this trend and given a courtesy call of the dramatic increase in monthly charge. Disappointed

 A company such as O2 might give you a call if they saw a very large number of uncharacteristic charges on your account due to suspected actual fraud or similar, which they claim they are not liable for in any case.

The fact that they facillitate, enable, sanction and get serious revenue from such 'value add' premium services., means such a call in theses cases is not very likely. Bottom line is that these 'services' are are close to being legalised and regulated, officially sanctioned, fraud.

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Payforit_Sucks
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@Azzajones77 wrote:
My wife had said recently she'd been running out of data and was having to top up more often, so I thought I would check her Bill and see just how much extra she was spending as we could always upgrade earlier to get more allowance.
It was then I noticed her bills have more than doubled in the last 2 months, but not because of increased data but charges to premium rate service SB7 and O2Uk? £3 to £4.12 per transaction several times a week.
Would have expected a company such as O2 to have noted this trend and given a courtesy call of the dramatic increase in monthly charge. Disappointed

SB7 Mobile are becoming notorious for 'Payforit' scams, of the type highlighted recently on BBC Watchdog.

A look at the reviews of SB7 on Trustpilot https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/sb7mobile.com shows the kind of company that O2 are treating as 'Trusted Partners'. These 'Trusted Partners' are allowed to take money from your account without any proof of consent. O2 should be ashamed that they exercise so little control over the companies they choose to trust.

 

Full help and advice for dealing with 'Payforit' scams can be found on the website in my signature. For some strange reason I'm not allowed to put a link to it in the body of the text as it is regarded as 'advertising'. (There is no advertising on the website and it costs me money to run it. I do so because I feel so strongly that this system is unfair to consumers).

 

I hope you manage to sort this out. If you need further help please contact me here or through the payforitsucks website.

These scams are a disgrace to the mobile communications industry and it is time that they were stopped.

 

 

Paul

payforitsucks.co.uk

Phone payment scam? Need independent advice? Payforit Faq for O2 Customers
 
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madasaf1sh
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Are you going to include every MNO that accepts these types of service payments.

And remember some people do signup for these services, legitimately and back in the day it was called reverse billed sms service.

- Xperia 1V - o2 and Spusu
- Pixel 8 Pro - o2 and Vodafone UK
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Payforit_Sucks
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@madasaf1sh wrote:
Are you going to include every MNO that accepts these types of service payments.

Apart from EE yes. EE have protected their customers by requiring a double opt-in with PIN for all 'Payforit' subscriptions.


@madasaf1sh wrote:

And remember some people do signup for these services, legitimately and back in the day it was called reverse billed sms service.

 

Those people seem to be very quiet on this forum, on the forums of other networks and on Trustpilot. The vulnerability of 'Payforit' makes it a target for fraudsters. A look at some of the services will show that many of them are ridiculously poor value for money.

 

Take Lasevia's Books4You service. You can read 50 'Classic books' (for Classic read out of copyright) for £4.50 per week (equivalent to nearly £20 per calendar month) They don't even tell you what the books are! Compare this with Amazon's Kindle Unlimited offering at £7.99 per month,

 

'Services' like this are not set up to provide a 'service' to consumers, they are set up to exploit the vulnerabilities of the Payforit system. I'm sure there are a few services which consumers find useful. Maybe you can find one which represents fair value for money, but I can't.

The old 'premium text' system was abandoned because it became a target for fraudsters. Payforit was supposed to provide additional safeguards for consumers. Unfortunately the fraudsters have now turned their attentions to Payforit and are utilising its obvious shortcomings to defraud consumers.

 

The Phone-paid services Authority is about to start a review of the rules for these subscription services. They have recognised that there is a problem with fraudulent subscriptions to these services and it seems certain that the rules will be tightened. It really is a matter for O2 as to whether they are going to adopt the same measures as EE, or whether they are going to wait until the regulator forces them to do so.

 

 

 

 



 

Phone payment scam? Need independent advice? Payforit Faq for O2 Customers
 
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Cleoriff
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Thanks for your continual updates about these scams @Payforit_Sucks

I find it extremely interesting to read as much as I can about them.

I wasn't aware that EE required a double opt in with pin for all Payforit subscriptions

Something we have requested O2 look at doing for some time now.

Veritas Numquam Perit

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