Problem with WWE scam charges

[Bryow]

Hi, Is anyone else having the same problem?

I have been scammed by Bounce.mobile out of £160 - according to their contact email person, someone signed me up to receive videos from World Wrestling(!!) on 21 March 2017 at 1am (like, I'd be awake then!), apparently, and I have been charged £3 a week since!

I was on PAYG then, so only noticed that my monthly spend was getting higher every month, higher than it had been. So, eventually, in December 2017 I changed to a pay monthly contract - was this 02's plan all along?? - and as I still had some credit on my phone, did not receive a bill until this month.

And then I noticed that the  'Things I have bought' section showed I had spent £10!! And after calling Live Chat, and then going into my local 02 branch and thumping the table, I have been given a nominal £10 re-pay on my last bill.

My question(s): a) I haven't had the £10 deducted from my bill yet (due for payment on 18 March), despite having complained on 8 March, and

b) has anyone else been scammed through 02, and is having problems getting their money back?

Thanks for any help you can give - talking to you, as I can't get through on Live Chat

[Cleoriff]

Hi @Bryow

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

Contact details for Bounce Mobile/Games here http://bmgames.uk/

If you deal with them directly ask them to stop the subscription and refund your money...

[Bryow]

Yeah, thanks Cleoriff, but I've been through that process already and having no luck/ response from the PSA yet, not had my bill sorted by 02, though I went in to complain on 8 March, and am generally *bleep* off.

Looking at forums for EE and Vodafone, Bounce.mobile have been running this scam SINCE 2015!!! and nothing is being done by the phone networks about it. Given that the (helpful - nothing against them) team in Brighton's 02 shop were able to get hold of the STOP code for me to stop any further charges being taken from my account shows that it is, surely, simple enough to block this fraudulent company - and given that it has been leaching off a number of phone company's customers for over 4 years(!!), it's bordering on criminal that the phone companies are not policing this.

As a few people across the phone provider companies have said, the companies are obviously benefitting financially from their cut of these costs - the unhelpful Bounce.mobi email respondent (if it is actually a person) said that I had been charged £3 a week since 21 March 2017, and yet on the recent bill it showed a deduction from my account of £2.50 a week... where did the other 50p go...??

02, would you like to respond to this? [I am a journalist and have  friend at Guardian Money who will, I think, be very keen to get this story...]

[MI5]

Please run the story for the sake of everyone who has or will be scammed.
Also expose the toothless regulator for what they are as well which is useless!

[Cleoriff]

Hi @Bryow I can only offer advice as we know it

I wasn't certain if you had contacted BM directly.

I also checked EE and Vodafone forums and it is a well known scam for them as well..

[jonsie]

I hope this does get run by the Guardian Money. All networks are able to put a block on these premium scams and if they made this a default setting then these detestfull companies would soon go out of business. It's time that the regulating bodies enforced this.