Unknowingly sent text from abroad

[Dave_R]

Just come back from holiday in Cape Verde (so not an inclusive EU destination).  Took care not to make calls or send txt messages (stuck to hotel WiFI).  Checking MyO2 I find that I have been charged for several SMS messages whilst abroad.  My phone (Pixel 3A) has no record of any outbound SMS messages.

The bill shows all SMS messages were directed to the O2 SMS access point number 07802000332.

Had an argument with customer services who are convinced that I (or someone else) MUST have sent the SMS messages - I didn't, & no-one had access to the phone.

Wondering if these spurious SMS messages are still being sent (e.g. by an app on the phone) but I'm on an "unlimited SMS" bundle, so checking usage on My O2 does not appear to itemise outgoing SMS messages as they are zero charge.  (this is my first month on O2 so I haven't got any other bills to refer back to).

Any suggestions WHERE these half dozen unsolicited, unmade, outbound SMS are coming from/going to? or what is sending them?

As an asside - customer services rep said he'd refund the cost to my account - though this is currently not showiong on MyO2 - be interesting when the billing date is reached in a few days' time.

[MI5]

@Dave_R 

This has been previously reported as visual voicemail completing a handshake with O2's systems.

[jTemplar]

I’m in Spain at the moment and this number appears on MyO2 bill nine times each charged at the rate of £0.13. Should I really be charged every time 'visual voicemail completing a handshake with O2's systems' occurs?

[Nena]

I’ve had a similar problem with £12 of texts to one number that I know I didn’t make. Customer services really unhelpful and condescending, told me their system can’t be wrong and I either sent the texts or someone else used my phone

[madasaf1sh]

@Nena 

Your phone can send texts without you knowing, as when you install them, and you blindly accept the permissions one of them will be allow the use of the phone and sms functions. 

So check your phone app permissions and see what has permission to cost you money.. 

WhatsApp, iMessage and Google RCS all send SMS tor register on the servers...

[S_L]

Same issue on two of my recent trips outside the EU so I got charged £6 per day several times (never happened when I was with another network). Same response from CS and avoided my request for proof of ACTUAL usage. They even charged me to opt-out o2 travel by text to stop further charges and then said such FREE text was chargeable usage! So I said either refund or log a formal complaint so I could take it all the way to Ombudsman or even Ofcom as telling customers "our system can't be wrong" is not a valid proof for billing and there was something fishy going on here. They then swiftly backed down. I suspect this is a known issue but O2 are hoping either people won't notice being overcharged or be persistent enough to get their money back. 

[madasaf1sh]

@S_L 

Just to be clear how roaming charging works..,..

The roaming partner you are on passed on the charges to o2 for the services you have used, whether that be data, SMS or Calls.. 

o2 then bill you for the services you have used, based on the roaming partner, o2 DO NOT bill you directly, hence there can be delays in billing from the roaming partner.. 

So In this case what has happened is that the roaming network has seen your SIM card send a SMS to a recipient and they have passed this onto O2 who have charged you for the SMS... 

OfCom would do naff all about the issue, as they dont deal with consumer complaints.. and the Ombudsman would have requested the data from the roaming partner.... 

Do you use WhatsApp or any other 3rd party messaging tool, including Imessage, as these services send SMS in the background to do authentication and authorisation request...

The Opt-Out text has been incorrectly charged I will agree... 

[S_L]

I do knot how roaming works. What I didn't realise is that their system can't be wrong because they saw 6KB of data usage their roaming partner might or might not pass that onto them when the mobile data was completely OFF during the day concerned. I also didn't realise texts to 9011 are allegedly sent by me and should be charged. Plus being charged for opt-out text when O2 constantly sends you texts to use this FREE service to activate or deactivate O2 travel.

I have never encountered any of these issues with another network over many years which offers something the same as O2 travel.

Anyway, I just want to let other users know that they should be persistent if this happens to them as CS seems to be trained to tell customers to go away as their system "can't be wrong". Thanks to other users on this forum, I found out 9011 is actually a default system message for visual voicemail unique to O2 which users are never made aware of. This gave me grounds to dispute CS’s assertion that "you must have used some premium text service" when you were abroad and could not tell me what 9011 was for.

I will switch to another network once my contract is over.