@bigdavie88 wrote:
Companies like these do not charge you out of the blue for no reason.
Their service has to be opted into via an app, game , text or email.
This is a common misunderstanding. O2 make NO CHECK WHATSOEVER that charges made in this way were lawful. These companies are allowed to submit charges against O2 numbers without evidence of consent.
There have recently been a number of scams where random numbers have become "subscribed" to these services. We tested a number of these services ourselves, and were able to subscribe our own phones to "services" from a WiFi conneted laptop or a completely different phone.
To ensure that a subscription is genuinely wanted, after entering their phone number, the subscriber should be sent a text containing a PIN. Correctly entering the PIN into the signup screen activates the subscription. This ensures that the phone number has not been mistyped, or entered by someone with malicious or fraudulent intent.
This video shows the issue. The PIN, which is supposed to be sent by text to the phone, was also displayed on the screen. Several "services" had the same issue.
We have found other "services" where the PIN verification is circumvented in other ways. In one case entering "0999" as the PIN always worked.
So it simply isn't true that
"companies like these do not charge you out of the blue for no reason.
Their service has to be opted into via an app, game , text or email. "
