Premium SMS Fraud

JamesIan

I got a message telling me the service had stopped and the next day two messages telling me I was being charged! I rang my provider who rang the service number listed and was told it was a fault and I would get a refund 7 days later!! I was also told to email helpmanager at careformobile dot com and ask for a refund, yet nothing. Very tempted to get another SIM and migrate across - what a total pain that will be.

Ian011

Changing your SIM or changing your mobile provider will have no effect as it is your phone number that is the key element.

On receipt of an unwanted chargeable message from a mobile shortcode it is vital to reply with STOP to end the subscription.

pmduk

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Put a spending cap on your account if possible, that'll stop any further payments.

Not necessarily, a spending cap applies to your spending with the network. The network has no control over your spending with third parties which, legally, is what these premium texts are.

JamesIan

Agreed, the only solution is changing the phone number. That is till they "get hold of it" then it will start all over again.

There seems to be little to stop these people till the Mobile phone providers do something about it to stop them. Not sure even the new GDPR will help.

pmduk

JamesIan wrote: »

There seems to be little to stop these people till the Mobile phone providers do something about it to stop them. Not sure even the new GDPR will help.

There's not a lot they can do. It needs Government or Ofcom action.

paulmu

Remote Games Ltd seem to have found some way to harvest peoples phone numbers and sign them up to their premium rate text service. My wife was a victim of this scam.
Remote Games Ltd was fined £70,000 together with £15,000 costs, in February 2015, so they ‘have form’.
https://psauthority.org.uk/for-business/adjudications/2015/2/remote-games-ltd-18639-adjudication-by-consent-adaf414e-59a1-e411-a529-00155d051116
This time it looks as though they have found some way to take advantage of the ‘auto-play video’ feature that has recently been introduced on the Facebook App. This means that videos are automatically opened as you scroll through. One phone call I had with Remote Games Ltd suggested that they had taken the opening of a video as consent to make charges. I suggest that you turn this feature off in the settings until we understand how this scam worked.
My wife sent the STOP text to 83463 within 6 hours of receiving the original subscription message. This was on the evening of Friday 27th October. No charges appeared on the account and we assumed that none had been made. However, today, 31st October 2017 a charge of £4.50 has been made to the account.
A large number of other consumers have been caught up in this scam. On GiffGaff ( my own network) there are the following threads in the forum, all started within the last couple of weeks.
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/Remote-Games-Ltd-Scam-at-4-50-a-time-Not-Happy/m-p/21004437
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/Help-with-message-83463/m-p/21005519
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/Receiving-unwanted-premium-texts/m-p/21019874
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/Received-Payforit-Charge-text-without-any-purchase/m-p/21009550
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/PayForIT-Charge/m-p/21002064
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/HELP-I-am-being-scammed/m-p/21024797
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/I-have-been-fraud/m-p/21043153#M7702173
I have summarised our existing knowledge and advice here, including some background and relevant Phone numbers and addresses:
https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/General-Discussion/Remote-Games-FunnyVideos-PayForIT-scams-using-short-text-number/td-p/21046927
Please complain to the regulator, even if you have not suffered financial loss. It is simply unacceptable that a system exists where these rogue companies can take money from your account without clear consent. I propose to write to my MP concerning these scams. We need a scheme more in line with the direct debit scheme where it is easy to challenge and reverse unauthorised debits. We also need a regulator which is not in the pocket of the scammers.

paulmu

I am really angry about the way that scammers can just take money from your phone account. The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) appears unable to control the industry and the number of complaints has rocketed in the past month.
I think an opportunity now exists to clean up this rotten system if pressure can be brought to bear. One of the problems is that PSA don't listen to consumers complaints.
PSA have a free seminar on the afternoon of 29th November in London, aimed at explaining their enforcement procedures to companies involved in the industry.

https://psauthority.org.uk/news-and-events/events/2017/november/insights-into-psa-regulation-investigations-and-enforcement
I think it's time to bring some pressure to bear on these clowns. I have signed up to attend and plan to ask some difficult questions! Anyone care to join me?

pmduk

paulmu wrote: »

The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) appears unable to control the industry...

You ought to bear in mind the PSA is the latest incarnation of a trade body called ICSTIS, which itself was set up by the "premium services industry" to regulate itself. Ofcom, never an organisation to get it's hands dirty by doing much, has chosen to delegate regulation for this sector to this body rather than do anything itself.

That said, when I was working for a mobile network, most of the cases I investigated, showed that many of these companies make great efforts to stick by the rules.

Londonlisa12

Had a similar problem a couple of years back phonepayplus could not have been more unhelpful.I really got the impression they did not care a toss.
Three.com my then provider eere exactly the same luckily I was towards the end of my contract and left solely be ause of this experiene.
The mobile networks in general do not do anything about the scamming since they get a large chunk of the money made by the scammers.
They try to distance themselves but at the same time willing to collect all tne cadh generated by the thieves.

LiGhTfasT

My wife has just been stung for £48!

She got a text from three today saying she had nearly reached her monthly cap. I cant believe this fraud even exists. I need to check if its the same company as the OP but she's very careful using her phone and would never agree to anything like this.

What can we do to stop further fraud? the only thing I can think of is changing number?