Unauthorised Payments on Phone bill

Torisdale

Summary:
I have been charged international payments of 71 pound 90 pence in January, 165 pounds in February and 213 pounds 66 pence in March by bjagexgame on my phone bill. These payments were not authorised by me and I am looking for advice on what I should do.

Action taken:
Initially on discovering the increase in my monthly contract I contacted EE support on 0800 956 6000 to notify them of the issue. The lady I spoke to was very polite however could only advise that they were third party payments to "bjagexgame" and that I would need to contact them in order to seek a refund. I had however managed to bar all future third party services from my device.

On googling Bjagexgame I found a help article where I could email them to advise of fraudulent activity this email interaction is not going as well as I would hope as I am just getting run round in circles (copy of transcript below):

In addition to this I have emailed BOKU requesting assistance (transcript also below):

From: Donald Mackenzie
Sent: 08 April 2017 17:16
To: Jagex Customer Support
Subject: Re: [Jagex] Re: Cancel my subscription

Good Afternoon Mod Base,

I am a little shocked that Jagex are unable to provide assistance in this matter as I have checked on "BOKU" and it is displaying a list of transactions to the Merchant registered as "Jagex Limited" see below list including ip address's of the purchaser.

I have blocked all third party payments from my device with EE and they assure me that I would need to speak to the supplier to process a refund.

I find it questionable that Jagex or any affiliate would accept multiple transactions (especially transactions to a total of more than £500) without any confirmation of identity. I have already raised a case with Action Fraud Police however this will not help in the recovery of unauthorised payments.

Status Date Merchant Product Price Billed
SUCCESSFUL 2017-03-23 19:33 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-03-23 19:28 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-03-17 20:06 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-03-14 19:55 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-03-12 13:39 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-27 18:17 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-25 09:22 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-24 19:06 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-24 18:55 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-21 20:35 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-18 09:26 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-18 03:13 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-17 21:47 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-16 23:30 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-16 23:26 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-13 18:23 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-13 18:07 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-07 22:54 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-02-07 22:45 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-31 00:07 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-31 00:03 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-29 17:57 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-26 19:56 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-26 19:55 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-23 21:07 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00
SUCCESSFUL 2017-01-23 20:42 UTC Jagex Limited Jagex Games £14.00 £14.00

As the merchant for these transactions and the beneficiary to these payments I would expect more assistance in recovering the stolen goods.

Regards,
Donald Mackenzie

From: Jagex Customer Support <support@support.jagex.com>
Sent: 08 April 2017 14:54:04
To: I dont know
Subject: [Jagex] Re: Cancel my subscription

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Mod Base (RuneScape)
8 Apr, 13:54 UTC

Hi Donald,

Thank you for contacting Jagex Customer Support – you are through to Mod Base.

At Jagex, we run a number of online games – including RuneScape. Players can make payments either to purchase membership for our games, or to buy virtual currency to spend within them.

We cannot issue refunds on ANY PayBySMS charge; as, unlike credit card and PayPal, the payment has been made via a third-party - not directly to us.

I would therefore advise you to speak to your phone service provider; who may be able to assist you with getting a refund on this charge.

They may also be able to block any further payments to our PayBySMS service provider, BOKU.

Please let us know if we can help with anything else – or check out our Support Pages.

Kind regards,
Mod Base
Jagex Customer Support

I dont know
7 Apr, 20:06 UTC

Date: 07-Apr-2017 21:06:40
Type Of query: Cancel my subscription
Geo IP: Private

---

Player Account Information:-

Login Email / Name: I dont know
Display Name: I dont know
Contact Email: [email]Private[/email]
PayPal Email Address: [email]Private[/email]
Alternative Last Known Login Email / Name: I dont know
Alternative Last Known Display Name: I dont know

---

Contact Details:-

Full Name: Private
Phone: Private
Postcode: Private

---

Payment Information:-

Payment Type: Mobile
Payment Date: Private
Credit Card First 6 Digits: Private
Credit Card Last 4 Digits: Private
Length of Payment: Private
Payment Amount: 213.66, 165, 71.90

---

Other:-

Additional Information: I have been charged international payments of 71 pound 90 pence in January , 165 pounds in February and 213 pounds 66 pence in March by bjagexgame on my phone bill for device Private. These payments are fraudulent and I want to know what happened and process a refund.

Please contact me urgently on Private.

From: Donald Mackenzie
Sent: 08 April 2017 17:56
To: support@boku.com
Subject: Unauthorised Payments

My device has been used illegally for multiple transactions listed below.

These transactions have totalled over £500 since December 2016 and at no stage have I provided any authorisation.

Reviewing your terms and conditions it suggests that an SMS communication is sent to my device (********) to confirm these transactions and I can assure you I have not provided this confirmation or seen any of these communications.

Please can you provide the evidence of this confirmation so that I can raise a case with the ombudsman.

Thanks in advance for your co-operation.
Donald Mackenzie

Quick Summary of Actions:

• Barred third party payments through EE support
• Contacted "Jagex" who were very unhelpful
• Reported the issue on Action Fraud
• Contacted "BOKU" who are yet to respond
• Re-contacted Jagex seeking further advice

pmduk

I suggest you look at the phonepaid services authority website and follow their complaints procedure. This whole area is a quagmire which Ofcom seems determined to ignore.

eddddy

So it sounds like you agreeing that somebody used your phone/device to incur these charges. But the charges were incurred without your consent.

Do you know who incurred the charges? If so, you need to pursue them for the money.


(As an analogy, if somebody uses your phone to make expensive international calls without your consent, you couldn't pursue the phone company for the cost. You'd have to pursue the person that made the calls.)

And if, for example, the person who incurred those charges impersonated you, that's likely to be fraud, which is a criminal offence.


But if you're saying your phone/device was not used to incur these charges, then the situation might be very different.