Step 3 – Make a complaint to the Phone-paid Services Authority(PSA)

If you have been signed up without consent to one of these premium rate services it really is important that you report it.

You should complain even if you have received a full refund. It is unlawful to charge without consent and providing a refund doesn’t make it right!

The PSA is not an ombudsman or a disputes resolution service, so don’t expect them to intervene directly in your case. They are  regulator, and will investigate if they receive a large number of complaints about a particular company.

In truth, PSA are generally quite ineffective, but they do compile statistics of complaints and these scams are massively under-reported. Make sure yours is included!

Step 2 – Getting a refund for charges already made.

Once you have successfully stopped the texts, it is time to set about getting a refund. Don’t expect your network to be helpful, but you can ask. If you get help please report it by leaving a comment below. There are reports of some networks arranging three way calls with these companies to assist customers. If they do this for you they are doing much more than they are required to do at this stage and deserve a pat on the back.

Getting your money refunded can be very simple or almost impossible. If the amount of money is small, you will probably get a refund from the ‘service provider’ without any problem. If the amount is larger, they will probably offer a partial refund. Don’t accept a partial refund!

Start as you mean to go on. You need to collect evidence, so record all calls, keep all texts and ask for confirmation in writing where appropriate.

The chances are that your network will not be in the slightest bit interested. The logical argument that they allowed the charge to be made and therefore should accept some responsibility won’t work.

So it is left to you to seek a refund.

Call the ‘service provider’ on the helpline number provided in the text. Make sure you record the call. Better still, if you have an email address, deal with the matter by email. The advantage of this is that you will have a clear record of what was said and what was promised. Be absolutely clear that you never consented to their charges and ask for proof of that consent. Ask for the following:

• Screenshots of the subscription workflow where you were alleged to have signed up for this service.
• A description of what the service you are supposed to have subscribed to provides? Is this a newsletter, access to a web portal?
• Any evidence that after supposedly signing up for the service, you actually used it
• The complete web server log of the subscription, including the User Agent strings containing all device details (browser, device type, device IP address) together with dates and times.
• If you are with O2 or GiffGaff the subscription started after 11^th May 2019, auditable proof of the additional authentication used (as required to comply with O2/GiffGaff rules)
• Full company details of the company operating the service, country of registration, full name of company, company number and registered company address.
• Details of the Accredited Payment Intermediary(API) which handled the payment
• Details of the company’s disputes procedure, including any ADR scheme you can refer the matter to if they fail to provide a full refund.

Remember that under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, the burden of proof rests with the service provider and not with you. You don’t have to prove you didn’t subscribe, they have to prove that you did! Tell them that you want a full refund of all the charges made to your account. Different companies will respond in different ways to this request. Many of the slightly more reputable companies will admit that they hold no evidence, or at least that they had ‘technical difficulties’ and will proceed to make a refund by one of the mechanisms listed below. The reality is that, because it often takes weeks for consumers to notice these charges on their bills, by paying refunds they avoid complaints. This results in fewer complaints about their ‘service’ and consequently they are able to operate for longer before being closed down.

Other will insist that you consented to their charges and will steadfastly refuse to make any refund. Some will tell you to apply for a refund by email – to an address which never receives a reply. When emailing, request a delivery receipt and a read receipt. If you get these back, keep them as evidence.

If a full or partial refund is agreed it will not be credited back to your ‘phone account. This is an example of just how broken the Payforit system is. Money is taken from your ‘phone account. If a refund is agreed you would expect it to be credited back to the same account. But this is ‘not technically possible!’.

The refund is likely to use one of three mechanisms:

1. A Paypal payment to your email address
2. A text message sent to your ‘phone which has to be presented to a Post Office for payment.
3.  A bank transfer (you will need to provide the company with your bank details for this and you may not feel this is safe)

You are entitled to insist on a refund to your phone account. This right is enshrined in the Consumer Rights Act Section 45(3). If you want to be difficult you can insist on this. Additionally, section 45(4) of the Consumer Rights Act allows 14 days for the refund to be made once it has been agreed. Keep evidence of the agreement to refund and the date it was agreed and the method which was agreed. I wouldn’t advise giving any additional personal information to these companies, so the refund options are somewhat limited.

If all attempts to get a refund from the scamming company fail, you can then go back to your network. Present them with the evidence that you have attempted to negotiate with the service provider, but that say that you remain dissatisfied. Remind them of Mobile Operators’ Code of Practice for the management and operation of Payforit. Ask them to provide the support that this Code requires. If the scammer has failed to engage with you, failed to provide evidence of your consent to the charge, or if the contact information supplied doesn’t work, you may have  case against your network. You will have done everything they asked you to do and it hasn’t worked! In these circumstances OfCom expect them to provide help and to make their own investigation. There is some evidence that the networks will make an ‘ex gratia’ payment to avoid bad publicity and avoid accusations of negligence.

If the network refuses to help you you will need to consider other courses of action. It is important to follow the process correctly in order to maximise your chances of success should the matter go to the Ombudsman, ADR or to the Small Claims Court.

Regardless of whether you are successful in getting a refund, there is still more for you to do!

Step 3 – Making a complaint to the Phone-paid Services Authority.

Step 1 – STOP further payforit charges from the same source.

If you are receiving text messages like those above, you need to stop them to avoid further charges.  Don’t ignore them. Don’t waste time at this stage arguing with your network. Your network will almost certainly tell you to go and negotiate with the third party company who have taken your money. They won’t take responsibility and are unlikely to help you. You need to take action to prevent further unauthorised charges to your account. The best way to do this is by phoning the number given in the received text. If you phone, you can ask for a full refund of the charges at the same time. Tell them you never knowingly subscribed to their service and that you require a full refund.

If you phone, record the conversation so that there can be no subsequent dispute about what was said.

If you prefer, or if you are within a ‘free trial’ period, you can send a STOP  text to the shortcode given in the text. In the example above it is necessary to text STOP or STOP ALL to 83463 to prevent further charges to your account. ‘STOP ALL’  should stop all services on the given shortcode. This can be useful if you have, or think you might have, been signed up to more than one service. There are two problems with stopping the charges by sending a STOP text:

1.  The text is chargeable (usually only 10p)

2. The companies sometimes take your sending of a STOP text as an indication that you accept the charges already made. This makes getting a refund more difficult.

You need to be sure to send the STOP message to the shortcode number in the subscription text. This text should be charged at your standard network rate. You should receive a confirmation text to confirm that you have been unsubscribed. Keep these texts until the whole matter is satisfactorily resolved.

Ask for confirmation of anything agreed in writing to avoid subsequent disputes. If they refuse to do this, send them an email outlining what you believe was agreed and asking them to contact you if anything in that email is disputed. Obtain delivery and read receipts for emails and retain these until the matter is resolved.

Basically, these companies are operating fraudulently and you should not trust anything they say. Judge them by their deeds and not by their words!

The charge receipt comes from Payforit and looks like this:

It is no use replying to this message, or indeed sending any message to Payforit.

Sometimes, all that is received is the Payforit receipt. In this case you need to identify the five digit number which is originating the charges.

If the Payforit receipt text is received without the accompanying sign up texts, you won’t know who to contact to stop the fraudulent subscription. In this case you have a deduction, but you don’t know what it is for. What to do if you can’t identify the originator of the charges

Try to approach the process in an organised and businesslike manner. Record calls and keep texts. Ask for written confirmation of anything agreed verbally. Most people get a full refund, but you do need to follow the process. You can rant all you like at your network, but the system makes it difficult for them to stop the charges. I agree that they could and should do much more, but if you delay in taking action yourself you will weaken your legal position.

If you’re not clear what Payforit is, look here.

Stopped the texts? Time for Step 2 – try to get a refund.

Step 4 – Protecting yourself from further scams

Update 10/04/2018

O2 now claim to be able to apply a ‘charge to bill’ bar which is effective against Payforit.

Yes, our customer service team will be happy to switch off all Charge to Mobile debits if required. Chat with us here: https://t.co/NH1CagE7R4 for help with this.

— O2 in the UK (@O2) April 10, 2018

Update 29/03/18  Three inform me that they are unable to implement a ‘charge to bill’ bar for their customers.

[1/2] Hey there! We do offer Control My Spend options, however these don't stop Payforit charges. We always recommend that customers take care on the internet as we have no control over which charges are added by 3rd…

— ThreeUKSupport (@ThreeUKSupport) March 29, 2018

There is a lot of confusion about what is possible to avoid third party charges to your ‘phone account.

Barring premium rate texts is sometimes proposed as a way of stopping these scams. It won’t work. It will prevent you sending premium rate texts, and may prevent you from seeing incoming premium rate texts. It will not stop you from being charged for incoming premium rate texts.

To stop these charges, you need a bar on third party charges to your account. At the time or writing it would appear that Vodafone,O2 and EE can put this bar on your account,  while Three can’t (or won’t?). If you have discovered otherwise, please comment on this post and let us know what your network can or can’t do.

You can test whether you have a charge to account bar in place by using a bus information service as follows – it shouldn’t cost more than about 25p:

Send a text to 87287.  In the body of the text just put 54321

It’ll cost your standard network text charge to send the text.
And another 12p to receive the reply.

Check your balance before you send the text

The test is, do you also get charged another 12p, and will a reply arrive.

Do let us know how you get on if you try this test. If your network has successfully applied a bar, please leave a comment so that this post can be updated.