Attempted Fraud

[Frogger]

I phoned customer services, to report an attempted fraud on my account. A company called BonaFideMobile said I had signed up for NewLevelGames and a weekly subscription of £4.50 would be taken from my mobile account. I had never heard of them and certainly never subscribed to anything. I never clicked on any of the links in the text. I was told by O2 customer service that they would block any payments and that I must send ‘manually’ a text to the short code, with the word STOP. This I did. However I now see that I was charged 8p for a premium rate text. The CS operator never told me I would be charged. The issue is not with the 8p but the fact that the Scammer has still made money from me and if everyone getting a junk text sent the STOP instruction the crooks are still getting money. This must be stopped can anyone tell me how I can send all the info to CS in O2 by email. I have screenshots and addition info. The online chat is inadequate for this, and I want to put the complaint in writing (email)

[MI5]

@Frogger community help here https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/Have-you-fallen-for-or-been-conned-into-a-premium-rate-s...

[MI5]

Also an excellent external website here https://payforitsucks.co.uk/

[Glory1]

Also help here @Frogger

http://payforitsucks.co.uk/

And please note there is no longer an email address for O2. You can only contact them by phone or through live chat, and the latter will be of absolutely no help to you.

[MI5]

@Frogger complaints process is here https://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain and the email or address to send info to is:
O2 Complaints Review Service
PO BOX 694
Winchester
SO23 5AP

complaintreviewservice@o2.com

[Cleoriff]

@Frogger 

You can also ask customer services to place the following bars on your accounts to stop this happening again.

• Bar all Direct to Bill Debits
• Premium Bar (calls to premium numbers, 090, 070 etc

[Frogger]

Thanks @MI5 and others. Payforitsucks website is very interesting and relevant.

[MI5]

Best of luck

[Payforit_Sucks]

@Frogger 

New Level Games is a Payforit "service" using shortcode 83463 and operated by a company called BonaFide Mobile.

I suspect we're going to see many more complaints about BonaFide Mobile.

You should be able to stop the charges by texting "STOP ALL" to 83463 (will cost about 10p) or by calling them on 03300535844.

You can check (and probably cancel) the subscription through this website https://www.mobileservicesupport.co.uk/

You can also email them at cs@bonafidemobile.com.

Bona Fide Mobile Ltd
3-4 Market Place
Wokingham
RG40 1AL

This "service" has a 24 hour cooling off period, so if you deal with it quickly you may be able to stop the charges before any money is taken.

There have been a number of reports of fraudulent signups to this service in recent days.

This post on the GiffGaff forum is interesting as it shows the mechanism of a clearly fraudulent signup which did not have the two step signup that O2 always refer to.  You may have had a similar experience.

https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Help-Support/New-level-games/m-p/23235500

It really is time that O2 stopped pretending that there isn't a problem here. A legitimate signup requires at least 2 steps with information about the contract they are entering in to clearly displayed to the consumer at each stage. This doesn't appear to be happening with this.

You need to be aware that O2 leak your phone number to third parties when you access the internet using mobile data, and this is probably how your number was acquired in order to make these charges. The system which does this is called 'Payforit'.

"Services" like this use vulnerabilities of the 'Payforit' system to obtain consumers numbers and sign them up to bogus subscriptions. Simply closing an innocent looking popup can pass your number to these companies and result in fraudulent charges.

You should also report this scam to the regulator:  https://psauthority.org.uk/for-consumers/report-an-issue.

Make sure that O2 apply a "charge to mobile" bar to your account, so that you don't suffer any further Payforit scams.

I hope you manage to resolve this matter. This fraud is a disgrace to the mobile communications industry and O2 should be doing more to assist affected members and to protect members.

Paul

[Thegamerstar]

I have been emailing them all week to no avail! IT is a scam and a complete fraud.

O2 say that they cannot do anything but why would they, this makes them money and is not their headache as we get re-routed to Bona Fide Mobile LTD!

Does / Has complained to the FO (ombudsman) or a Governing body?