Looking at my mobile phone bill the other day I noticed it was higher than expected so decided to sit down and have a proper look at the invoice. I then noticed that I had received about 20 texts over the last few months from the number 88150 and been charged £1.25 for the pleasure of receiving them. Now I do remember getting a few, just a few texts from this number saying I’d signed up to a porn website which of course I hadn’t. There was the option to reply STOP but I assumed this was a scam and would charge me even more, so I just blocked the number.

Speaking to O2 this morning to try and get the money back, I discovered I’m still getting charged for these texts, though as I blocked them I’m no longer seeing them. The girl at O2 said I should reply Stop to the text, and she would try to get my money back, though she wasn’t hopeful.

I asked O2 if they have a department that deals with such scams, NO, of course not, and guess what, reading around the internet, the service providers take upto 75% of the money as well!

Now I’ve had a mobile for over 20 years now and have never been a victim of such a thing, maybe it was just my turn, but…I only switched to O2 3 months ago and have been deluged with PPI calls and texts and other “un-solicted” texts. Anyone else experiencing something similar?

That’s ridiculous, how can it be legal to charged for unsolicited txt’s (or service)? Contact Ofcom?

This reminds me of what happened to my daughter many years ago. I contacted Virgin who shrugged their shoulders saying it wasn’t their fault and couldn’t do anything.

Get on to Ofcom, phone them as I’ve found them to be helpful.

via http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/

Customer care number: 0800 157 7502
Customer care email: uk.care@veoo.com
Search result provided by: Veoo
Service connected on: 18 July 2012
Service terminated on: This service is still operating
Name of service: VEOO Non-Adult Shared Code
Type of service: Entertainment – non-adult
Service description: various non-adult content offerings such as glamour content, ringtones, competitions, micropayments, chat and alerts
How much does this service cost? £1.50 non-adult shared code
If you would like to find out more about this service or have a question about it then you should contact Veoo
25A Farringdon Street
Veoo LTD
London
EC4A 4AB

Veoo “is a dynamic messaging partner offering a complete range of enterprise quality SMS services.” So you’re being spammed by one of their customers, I’d hazard.

Handy advice,

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Tips-Guides/Stopping-Unsolicited-Premium-rate-SMS-Messages/td-p/330267

Thanks all. I’m definitely getting on to Offcom. O2’s complicit-ness in all of this just plain stinks.

OFCOM cant and wont do much about it so I believe as they are a regulatory body. Disputes on your bill should only be targeted at your provider. As this is a 3rd party SMS then your network will try and pass the buck or just leave the complaint in the system until you go away.

I deal with Veoo on a daily basis and it wont be those guys directly who are reverse billing but they can help you out. Failing that I can have a word with my contacts at Veoo to try and find out what you’ve signed up for.

Feel free to email my personal email at andy(..at..)andyhollandracing(..dot..)co(..dot..)uk

Quit the O2 shite and come join us wiser folk over on three network.

😀

How did you get ‘signed up’ for the texts in the first place?

If the network won’t reimburse you, maybe you need to refer the scam to the police?

Quit the O2 shite and come join us wiser folk over on three network.

Yeah, right… 🙄
I very, very occasionally get spam calls, PPI, bank charge refunds, etc, all from the same or similar 020 numbers, but by comparison to Orange, O2 has been outstanding; you don’t get continual cold calls trying to get you to upgrade your phone, which was incessant with Orange, and continued for nearly two years on O2 because I ported my very memorable number over, and the bastards followed me.
And 3 are buying up O2, allegedly. Which might improve 3’s bloody dreadful coverage everywhere that isn’t a large metropolitan area. I had a 3 sim in an old phone, struggled to find a signal anywhere in North Wilts.
Useless.

Oh that goes for Vodabone too!

My business phone was being charged 6 quid a month for nearly 2 years by a company supplying horoscopes. Orange could do nothing but gave me the company name for which I found the customer service number. They refunded me to my PayPal account.

I haven’t signed up for anything, and they’ve appeared on both numbers on my account. I’m going to have a word with O2 again tomorrow as they are the ones taking the money from me. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that this can even happen.

It can be done through clicking a link on a downloaded app. That’s what we think happened in our case when laddo used to play on my old work iPhone.
And no there is nothing o2 can do as it’s a third party charge.

I’ve just gone through exactly the same but I was charged 4.99eur a fortnight. Apparently they sneak the ‘contract’ in a pop up when you are surfing and when you click the x button to get rid of it this acts as accepting their t&c. I went into the mobile shop where I bought the phone and the chap was really helpful. Again the phone company couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything but he gave me an 0800 number to call to cancel the contract which I had to do on the landline and not mobile. All seems to have stopped now plus the phone co has put a block on all premium ‘services’so it can’t happen again….hopefully.