Mobiplanet UME Limited premium rate scam

manishsavingexpert · 22 May 2018 at 10:21AM

Hi all,
My wife received an SMS telling her that she was subscribed to a premium rate service (actual service details unknown) for £4.50 a week - checked the bill and sure enough 2 payments had been posted to the bill. We dont have an email telling us the subscription had been started. Just this one after 2 weeks (and 2 payments)

I have texted STOP and spoken to the call centre folks to stop this - and also asked for a refund. Still waiting to get confirmation.

The scam is that some banner ad in a browser on the phone was accidentally clicked and that automatically subscribes you to the service. No confirmation, no cooling off period. Lots of people have failed into this trap and seen bills soar to 100s of £s

If i do not get a refund I will be going to the PSA (Phone-paid services authority) to complain about this company.

Anyone dealt with this before?

manishsavingexpert · 22 May 2018 at 5:29PM

We followed advice on several phone network forums and asked for a refund from UME limited. They offered 50% of the refund but upon going back to them more strongly, they gave us a full refund. The amount in question wasn't much but clearly infuriating then it is so easy to fall prey to this malpractice

Ian011 · 23 May 2018 at 2:39AM

Even though you got a refund, do still make PSA aware of the details.

manishsavingexpert · 7 June 2018 at 6:29PM

Will do Ian011. Thank you for the suggestion

mhorne · 8 June 2018 at 5:01PM

I also received an SMS message and was very alarmed to find that I had to pay £4.50 every week for a subscription to a website i had never heard of. This is a scam! I made them send me evidence of my supposed subscription...their evidence was bogus. They did not have the correct ip address and the date they claimed my subscription had taken place was after I had been charged. They now say they are going to refund me...at first it was 50% I stated I wanted 100%. I wait for the result of this and will keep this thread up to date. I am going to forward all emails to the watchdog. What is super annoying is that my mobile phone company...made the payments without my say so!!!!! Do they get a cut I ask myself. Does anyone know? I will be phoning them again to complain. It is three.

pmduk · 8 June 2018 at 7:17PM

You should refer this company to the regulator, The Phonepaid Services Authority. From what you've said this company is behaving illegally .

Orkfay · 8 July 2018 at 4:21PM

My wife similarly had an SMS telling her she had signed up to MobiPlanet services and informing her of £4.50 charges per week.
As she had not signed up to MobiPlanet (or anything similar) and SMS to STOP was to a premium rate SMS, she reasonably assumed this was SPAM and ignored it.
However MobiPlanet (AKA UMElimited) has succeeded in charging her mobile phone account £4.50 per week for past 3 months.
£4.50 has been charged to her mobile account weekly without her consent.
Attempts to reclaim the money from UME limited have so far been unsuccessful
We have blocked any future Premium subscriptions via her provider o2
We are taking the matter up with psauthority.org.uk
John Mann MP is making a case to make this practice illegal.

KaneH8 · 8 August 2018 at 9:06PM

I have suffered the same, got the text message and no knowledge of how I subscribed. I have sent Stop message, does that actually work?!
Also emailed but they!!!8217;re asking for my mobile number and I!!!8217;m extremely cautious to put that in an email to them.
Hoping someone here can tell me if the Stop text works?
Thanks !!!55357;!!!56911;!!!55356;!!!57339;

SaveMeDo · 13 August 2018 at 10:54AM

I have suffered the same, got the text message and no knowledge of how I subscribed. I have sent Stop message, does that actually work?!
Also emailed but they!!!8217;re asking for my mobile number and I!!!8217;m extremely cautious to put that in an email to them.
Hoping someone here can tell me if the Stop text works?
Thanks !!!55357;!!!56911;!!!55356;!!!57339;

The O2 shop guy advised me NOT to phone the scammer as they would keep me on the line for ages at premium rates, I don't know if the "Stop text" works because I cut the sim up and my O2 account only has £1.19p in credit, so they can't take £4.50, I asked the chatbot on the O2 website if my number was compromised but the guy didn't have a clue, or wasn't telling.

Alwaysangry · 28 August 2018 at 7:02AM

Morning all,

I like like the rest of you have made no such subscription to mobiplanet.

However this isn't the first time they've sent me the 2 text messages.

It appears to be completely automated. I happened to keep the last ones, including my Stop message. It was exactly the same time on the same date last month and the month before. I'll be passing my evidence trail onto the PSA shortly as I find it impossible that I could subscribe to something by clicking on something I know nothing about with such impressive chronological accuracy:rotfl:

Perhaps I send them terms and conditions of my own, text me again the bill will be the entire balance of your company accounts payable within 30 days.

Good luck all! :money:

pmduk · 28 August 2018 at 7:49AM

SaveMeDo wrote: »

The O2 shop guy advised me NOT to phone the scammer as they would keep me on the line for ages at premium rates,

That advice was wrong, 0333 numbers are charged at normal rates and will be included in any call bundles you may have. Staff in phone stores are sales staff and their advice treated as such.

Mobiplanet UME Limited premium rate scam

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