I have been charged £4.50 for a text I didn't sign up for

Hi @shoaibs48

I have had exactly the same issue in the past. I was getting charged £4.50 a week for some GameBench I have never signed up for. I got this cheeky charges because I installed an app that signed me up without my consent. Took me forever to have it cancelled but I managed due to my persistence and patience calling and emailing this GameBench thingy.

Regards

Let us know how you get on @shoaibs48, Terry is right with what he's told you.

The https://psauthority.org.uk has all the details you would need on how to get any sort of chargeable text message issues resolved.

I have called the company the text is from and they cancelled the subscription so I won't be charged in future but they refused to refund this payment. They said I must have signed on by clicking on an add which has 1 click sign up but I don't remember doing that. I have filled a report at the website mentioned above. I have also asked id to block premium rate SMS in the future.

I have also been charged a premium text fee of £4.50 from 65333 a company known as ValueStay registered in Belize. When I searched for them yesterday on https://psauthority.org.uk/ I was able to find their details but today the same search brings back nothing. Have reported them to PSA and emailed to ask for refund.

I am amazed that a company can be paid £4.50 from my iD account simply by sending me a text message that I did not authorise. A simple way to scam money from people before shutting up shop and reopening as another business.

Disappointed with iDs response which was basically there is nothing we can do!!! General advice is to contact the company and ask for refund, report to the PSA.

I have turned off the premium feature in the app but was told this will not stop me receiving them! Very frustrating & worrying how simple it is to scam innocent people! 😡

Mattyrays wrote:

Disappointed with iDs response which was basically there is nothing we can do!!! General advice is to contact the company and ask for refund, report to the PSA.

This charges come from different company which you unwillingly signed up for. It is enough to click onto a soddy banner, add or link and you signed up.

To explain it as easy as I can I use this example.

Lets say Asda charge you for a shopping you have never done, would you go to ask Tesco for a refund?

I have had excatly the same issue when I was using "Three" network and they told me excatly same thing as well as o2 said it to my partner. We both got these surprising charges by using "Slidejoy" app which supposed pay you some coins for looking at adds.

Hopefully this will explain things a bit more.

Regards

I don’t use many apps, enter dodgy competitions and definitely haven’t signed myself up for premium text services.

As Ryan said on a related post “It could be a case of someone who has a similar number to yourself has entered it incorrectly when signing up.”

It's worrying that all it takes to start being hit with premium text charges is for someone to enter your mobile number somewhere they shouldn’t or the company get hold of it via another deceitful route.

There should be a way of protecting consumers by blocking incoming premium texts or a setting in the app which allows you to opt-out/block them.

Thanks for the response @Hikari but as an analogy this doesn’t really work:

“Lets say Asda charge you for a shopping you have never done, would you go to ask Tesco for a refund?”

Clearly not but I would contact my bank / credit card company and expect them to be somewhat more helpful. iD are taking money from / applying charges to my mobile account and paying it to the dodgy 3rd party company, so they are involved in the payment / transaction.

Blocking them altogether should be an option that can be applied.

Hi @Mattyrays,

Lowering your bill cap can be a way to ensure that no extra charges are incurred, however this does stop you from being able to send MMS messages and other chargeable services.

We allow companies to charge you via a premium text because we, and as the law would presume, you consented at the time to give your number to the company to charge you for those texts. We know that this wasn't the case in your situation, but we simply cannot block these sorts of service as many of our customers use them legitimately, especially for entering competitions etc.

Ryan

Hi 

 

Can I just say a MASSIVE thanks for posting the link. I was being charged £9 per month for a premium message service. I emailed them asking them to remove me from the subscription. I got a reply within 5mins not only confirming cancellation but also offering me a £27 refund as a gesture of goodwill. Fantastic result!

Karen

Excellent stuff @stirling3201

 We’re happy to see that’s more than resolved for you there.

Have a great rest of your day!