Date: 28-03-24  Time: 14:33 pm

Author Topic: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls  (Read 2738 times)

sadlonelygit

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EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« on: 27 December 2015, 02:05:49 pm »
wifey just checked her bank balance and discovered her mobile bill for november was over £100.
so just been going through her last years statements and she has been charged for txts that don't show up on her phone (£87.50) and an hour long phone call (£53) which again doesn't show on her logs.
anybody got any experience of how to deal with this or do i just need to go into the high st store and kick off in front of other customers (best tactic for getting things dione fast ime)
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Grayo

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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #1 on: 27 December 2015, 07:48:00 pm »
wifey just checked her bank balance and discovered her mobile bill for november was over £100.
so just been going through her last years statements and she has been charged for txts that don't show up on her phone (£87.50) and an hour long phone call (£53) which again doesn't show on her logs.
anybody got any experience of how to deal with this or do i just need to go into the high st store and kick off in front of other customers (best tactic for getting things dione fast ime)


I had the same thing yesterday.
Have a look at the text message log on your wifes' phone.
My wife has been receiving two texts every week for the last month from a scam number (87066) and being charged £4.50 a time.
Vodafone said they can only put a block on premium rate text numbers. They can't refund the money as they haven't taken it in the first place.
If this is the case then report it to Phonepayplus and they will refund it for you.
Hope this helps.
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unfazed

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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #2 on: 27 December 2015, 09:41:55 pm »
This happened a few of our staff at work and it starts by you getting a text, usually from a number you do not recognise and you replying to it.
Then then know the number is live and spoof the calls and messages to get the supplier to bill you for their calls and premium rate texts.
The important bit here is prevention and that is not to reply to texts from numbers you do not recognise.  :thumbup

When we checked with those who were caught out by the scam, all of them had replied to texts from numbers they did not recognise the previous month with something like "who is this?"
They never received a reply just a fine  bill for calls and texts. Our mobile supplier kept a check on the numbers and blocked all calls to and from the premium rate texts/numbers on our work phones. It stopped but I do not know what the end result was.

acid drop

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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #3 on: 29 December 2015, 07:51:48 pm »
I had this happen to me some years ago phone provider said to text back  STOP in capitals and it would stop, so I did and the texts stopped.

darrsi

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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #4 on: 30 December 2015, 08:46:23 am »
I had it a few weeks back.
My bill is pretty consistent normally as i have quite a good tariff, but suddenly and by chance noticed an increase so looked online where the increase had come from and it was weekly texts from an 80333 number.
Thing is, when i looked on my phone texts it came up as "Free Msg", but i hadn't even opened it, just put it down to junk and ignored it as i predominantly use Whatsapp anyway.
Gave O2 a call and they said that it was a third party message and not really their fault, and told me to return a text straight away saying "Stop".
But each of the 3 texts i'd received were £4.50, plus they then explained that the 'stop' text would then cost me another £1 on top as well.
I kept my cool explaining that this had to be the easiest scam of making money ever, and they were obviously very familiar with it, so sympathised with me then credited me back the whole amount.


I use a a phone app now called "Call Blocker" which is extremely useful for known nuisance callers, like the one's that are silent or wankers that tell you you've just had an accident.
If i don't recognise a number i'll Google it and find out who they are, and if other people say it's a sales call i'll use the app to register their number on my phone and when they call again you'll hear the phone ring for a millisecond then cut them off.
Plus it blocks text numbers from the log too.
Certainly worth having on your phone. 
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joebloggs

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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #5 on: 30 December 2015, 12:13:43 pm »
My ex Mrs worked for talk talk in retentions and was able to give insentives to customers to keep them sweet.

Next time you find any charges on your account, contact customer services and kick off, you are not happy with their service and want to know what they are prepared to give you to keep you happy. Initially the answer will be we cant help you sir, so you take the agents name then ask to speak to the duty manager (this is all recorded so they have to comply) you then go through the same routine, complaining re the service, how THEY have allowed a company to charge your account for call's you didn't make and how unsatisfied you are with his/her company and you are sure you would recieve better service with an alternative provider. Take the duty managers name and tell him/her that you wish to leave the company and seek another provider. With talk talk you would then be transfered to retentions, this is where you can bargain with them, basically what are you prepared to do to retain my as a costumer, they may be unable to acctually refund the charges but different tarrifs and wavered monthly charges are a possibility so just stand your ground and see what they are prepared to offer you.

We had a fault with our Virgin internet service when they had a break down in comunication within the company, as an existing customer we were offered a new TV package for £25 (installation cost only) although someone forgot to tell the accounts department (normally £150 + £25) so due to some policy supposedly to prevent customers getting to far in arrears they switched off our phone, internet etc. Big misstake, by the time Marie had finished with them we had £200 credited to our account and the installation free of charge.

Ok so in the Virgin Media case we were in the right, they messed up the service and paid for it, but I've seen my Ex argue with agents when she's been blatantly at fault and still come out on top.

Trouble with us Brits is we're not used to complaining
 
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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #6 on: 30 December 2015, 05:30:48 pm »
I had the same issue on my daughters phone where the bill went from £7.60 per month to £50 all down the these messages.
Vodafone advised that it was not their fault and blamed my daughter for signing up to or registered with something.
I pointed out that this was impossible as messaging was barred from her phone and full parental controls were on her account.
In additional there was calls registered as coming from her account in the middle of the night (when I had the phone in my possession.

I kicked up a stink as trawling the web I found out that Vodafone was "selling on" phone numbers to 3rd parties so they could contact their customers and charge them money.
the 3rd Party then text you and if you DO NOT reply STOP then they continue to text you charging up to £3.50 for you receiving the text. They can even send texts that you do not receive and charge you the money.
Vodafone refunded ALL of the money charged to me although they did advise to contact PhonePayPlus to "de-register" from their system.

darrsi

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Re: EE...........mysterious txts and phantom phone calls
« Reply #7 on: 30 December 2015, 05:53:56 pm »
I had the same issue on my daughters phone where the bill went from £7.60 per month to £50 all down the these messages.
Vodafone advised that it was not their fault and blamed my daughter for signing up to or registered with something.
I pointed out that this was impossible as messaging was barred from her phone and full parental controls were on her account.
In additional there was calls registered as coming from her account in the middle of the night (when I had the phone in my possession.

I kicked up a stink as trawling the web I found out that Vodafone was "selling on" phone numbers to 3rd parties so they could contact their customers and charge them money.
the 3rd Party then text you and if you DO NOT reply STOP then they continue to text you charging up to £3.50 for you receiving the text. They can even send texts that you do not receive and charge you the money.
Vodafone refunded ALL of the money charged to me although they did advise to contact PhonePayPlus to "de-register" from their system.


That's just bollox and totally fraudulant as far as i'm concerned.
Vodafone customer services are wankers at the best of times, i had a contract with them for less than 24hrs, but spent about 4hrs on the phone to their arrogant staff during that period.
Can you imagine how many people don't complain or even notice these charges until way down the line?
Somebody is making a bloody fortune out of this scam and it needs to be outlawed.  :grumble

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