Unauthorised Premium Texts

SaveMeDo wrote: »

Wow!


What is MSE doing about this scandal?

What are YOU doing about the scandal?

That article was from May 2016. How many complaints this year?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6035691/Google-identifies-150-apps-hidden-malware-designed-infect-Windows-PCs-plugged-in.html


https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/999716/Android-warning-malware-apps-Google-Play-Store-Windows-malicious-software


https://www.zdnet.com/article/malicious-android-apps-infected-with-windows-keyloggers-pulled-from-google-play/


All these links from the last 24 hours.


Five minutes research finds that we have a massive problem with mobile phone security and it seems that the "industry" the media and our "politicians" know about it but are doing nothing.


It seems that any tom !!!! or harry can request a telecom provider to take weekly payment off my phone, even on pay as you go phones, with "push" scams.


I only lost £9, but I'm absolutely furious about that, because I know it will be the vulnerable and less able people who will fall pray to this.

What are YOU doing about the scandal?

I'm supporting the OP, and trying to get MSE to take up the issue.


A sticky about these scams would be a start.

It takes regulators about four to eight years to act on scams, with stricter regulation that closes most of it down. This is mainly due to the fact that perhaps only one in ten thousand victims bothers to report it. A regulator simply won't act on something that generates one or two reports per year as they assume it is a limited problem. Only when it becomes apparent that there are thousands of victims will they act. To get to the point where there are thousands of reports being made usually means there are millions of victims. The biggest ally of the scammers is the victims who fail to report the issue to the appropriate regulator.

SaveMeDo wrote: »

The regulator is a joke, just like the Press Complains Commission, they are put their by their industry to protect them from criticism.


Here the thing, how many people, the elderly and disabled, are paying £4.50 a week to these scammers?


Hundreds, Thousands, Tens of thousands?


Does anyone care?

Suggesting pragmatic approaches might be more useful than unfocused rants.

so02see wrote: »

I just want to know if anyone ever gets all their money back

Twice I've asked and been easily removed from such services.

One had not actually charged me anything, but I still pointed out I hadn't subscribed to their service at all, and not wanted to receive the service message download link to some game, or whatever it was. There was a bit of confusion, as they couldn't find any record of my number. Eventually we had a mutual brainwave and discovered they had my Orange Answer Fax number, not the main one.

On the other occasion a firm didn't quibble at all and politely sent me a cheque for £1.50.

It goes both ways though. On yet another occasion I actually did want to subscribe to something, by deliberately sending a premium rate message. I was charged 12p, but the reply didn't come, so no other charge. I contacted the number provider, who said the block on premium services was in place by the mobile network. I contacted Carphone Warehouse (it was a Fresh SIM, with credit transferred across to them when Easy Mobile had closed down), and they refused to enable the service, pretending that T-Mobile were responsible for the block (which T-Mobile denied, said it was CPW).

Yes, believe it or not, some do occasionally want to send some of their phone credit by using a premium service, for example charity donations to TV shows like Children in Need or Comic Relief.

Note that the number provider is a phone company, and the actual premium service behind it is usually from another company. So whatever your opinion about the ethics involved, you don't need to sound off directly to the people you have a low opinion of.

Talk to the phone firm, and most won't argue at all. Look up their contact details by searching the number on the regulator website.

Then phone them up, calmly, say you didn't subscribe to the service, you want to be unsubscribed, and ask for your money back.

Actually do it, instead of pessimistically complaining it's bound to be a waste of time.

Yes, I see in the OP that you have, and the issue now is about a handling fee on the refund, but I'm saying this also for others who find this later.

I had had premium rate bar on, that is why if think O2 bare responsibility for my loss.


I learned the lesson about "premium rate" scams when I had a problem with my Sky broadband connection, I looked on the internet for the Sky phone number, rang them sorted the problem.


On checking the credit on the phone after, I found the the call had cost me £15 pounds!!!!!!


I phoned Three, and they said that the number I had phoned was a re-direct service that charges premium rates! Yeah!


Three customer services were very good and refunded me, but why is this sort of scam even legal?


Anyway, lesson learned, now the first thing I do is get the premium rate bar put on, It still didn't stop this weekly billing scam.


The entire mobile phone industry is riddle with corrupt practices, it is like entering a sewer full of rats!