Being billed by Payforit for unrequested services

I have managed to get some money refunded from various OPTIMUS, LORDAS LTD, 77 GAMES etc from numbers 82344, 88222, 87770 and worst one is 64055 which takes £10 every 3 days!! from my 11 year olds vodafone account. Had to call and email them all separately, Vodafone first said they could not do anything but have subsequently blocked all SHORT NUMBERS from his phone. They know he is a minor, but the law is a very grey area on this subject - and much debate in government about it at the moment. 64055 is linked to all major phone networks and Payforit which was a company set up to try and stop scamming it is also linked to mobile interactive group who's parent company is Velti.com. Their email is help desk@nekoj.com or support@velti.com. All these numbers can be checked through a site phonepayplus 0800 500212.

Found this thread from Google having just received two rather strange texts to my mobile.

The first purported to be from Payforit (and as I gather from this thread, it's an operator sanctioned contact, so of course, there's no actual contact details)

FreeMsg: Use code xxxxxx to verify your purchase of £xx

(suffice to say it was in double figures!)

I then received a second text message, from what appears to be a regular mobile number with the following text

Thanks for your purchase. You will now be billed £xx Or if you would like to cancel this purchase please reply with you 4 digit pin code Thanks XXX.com

(The poor grammar and punctuation is as it was sent in the text.)

Now, I'm wondering if this is an interesting twist on the scam.

Y attempts to use Payforit to pay for something, but uses Z's mobile number.
Z gets a message from Payforit with an authorisation code
Y sends a message to Z purporting to be from the seller, and suggesting that this purchase can be cancelled by sending the authorisation code.
Z sends the authorisation code.
Y can then use the code to authorise whatever crap they used Payforit to buy in the first place.

Not sure if this would work in practice, but seems plausible (at least to someone who doesn't know anything about Payforit i.e. me...) Having had a brief look at the Payforit consumer website, it looks like that may well work.

Either way, the Payforit text looks as though it is legit (at least in the sense that someone has triggered it somehow) but the second text is too full of errors for my liking.

I'm with Three, so will be phoning them first thing in the morning to ensure I'm not being billed for anything.

It's my own phone, passcoded, and never leaves my sight, so no one has had access to send any text messages from it. The only thing I can think of is that I've just put a couple of ads up on Gumtree minutes before I received the text and wonder if my number has been mined from there.

Ad71 wrote: »

Hi, wonder if anyone can help/advise. Recently noticed my orange bills creeping up and after looking at bills in more depth have noticed some charges by "Payforit" for the amount of £4.50 pw. To my horror after going back as far as the charges began - they started last June (total of £131.50) to date.....]

Update to my post above. Further contact with Orange - this time a lot more helpful. Orange rep made a few phonecalls on my behalf and connected me to the actual company. Apparently some site for weekly quizzes. called 'Quiz2win' NEVER heard of them. :mad::mad:

Ive now been given contact to get in touch to discuss matter and been assured it will stop as of today. We shall see!!! Be very aware of your bills people. Lady at Orange informs me this happens a lot and these companies latch onto mobile numbers even if you haven't had dealings with them.