Premium rate text

[Greggus]

So I received a message today saying my premium rate allowance has been reached , I thought with was odd because I can't remember the last time I made or received a conventional call or text , so I look and I've had apparently 8-10 texts and receiving them has charged me 89p , I've got no such texts on my phone nore do I know what it is, im trying to find an o2 live chat but it seems to have gone , has anyone got any tips to sort this please.

[MI5]

@Greggus 

Lots of complaints.

See main thread here https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/Multiple-Texts-Off-84222-number-just-now/td-p/1393480

[RachNotts]

The exact same thing happened to me yesterday around 6pm; I received 26 SMS messages.

Fortunately, I have a £10 spend cap set so they only got about £7 from me (as £3 goes to charity each month), but I am really disgusted at 02's response to this. Saying I have to call a 55p a minute number to claim it back (which will undoubtedly cost more than the £7).

I've been a loyal customer for well over 10 years and you can clearly see this is spamming activity and not something I have registered for (which is what they claim you have to have done to get these premium number messages).

I am worried this will happen again as the number I was told to send STOP to didn't deliver (although they did successfully get me to opt-out of my charity donation....  :S)

I'll be reducing my spend cap and recommend everyone has a spending cap in place.

[Payforit_Sucks]

@RachNotts 

This "incident" has highlighted the danger of using your phone account to make "third party" payments. If Moblix Media hadn't admitted that the payments were unlawful, we have no doubt that O2 would have insisted on allowing the charges to stand. They have done this before in many other cases. O2 make no effort to investigate allegedly fraudulent charges and make you fight for a refund yourself, with no support from them.

Paying for third party goods and services via your phone bill is a bad idea. O2 are not FCA regulated. By paying this way you deprive yourself of the protections offered by all reputable, regulated payment mechanisms. O2 offer no process for disputing charges, no refund or chargeback mechanism and no protection against fraud.

On request O2 will bar all thrid party charges to your account, protecting you from fraudulent third party charges. This bar will prevent you making charity donations via your phone. Such donations are better made by Standing Order from your Bank. That way, the charity will receive 100% of your donation. Networks and intermediaries take up to 30% of these payments as commission, reducing the amount actually received by the charity.