EE Problem - scam messages

[Foxyflugel]

Hi everyone

Can anyone give me advice on the following:-

My elderly Mother has a mobile phone on contract through EE. Over the past few months her bills have been more than they should be and she could not figure out why. It has now come to light that she is receiving text messages (usually several close together at stupid o'clock in the morning) and these are the cause for the extra charges. She isn't physically opening them but when she goes onto her messages they open automatically due to the model of phone she has.

She phoned EE and they did not want to know and said it wasn't their problem basically.

What can she do to get her money back? It is £45+.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Foxy :tinysmile_twink_t2:

[nemesis45]

Re: EE Problem - scam messages

Hi everyone

Can anyone give me advice on the following:-

My elderly Mother has a mobile phone on contract through EE. Over the past few months her bills have been more than they should be and she could not figure out why. It has now come to light that she is receiving text messages (usually several close together at stupid o'clock in the morning) and these are the cause for the extra charges. She isn't physically opening them but when she goes onto her messages they open automatically due to the model of phone she has.

She phoned EE and they did not want to know and said it wasn't their problem basically.

What can she do to get her money back? It is £45+.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Foxy :tinysmile_twink_t2:

The first thing to do is block the numbers for these texts.

I have been told not to use the " text stop to xxxx" as
some of these sites charge for the " stop" text.

Unless to can contact the originator of these texts an I guess this wont be easy there is
little you can do to recover the money.

Many of these it seems are linked to competition sites and it's easy to inadvertently get on to them.

nem

[Foxyflugel]

Re: EE Problem - scam messages

Hi Nem and thanks for your reply.

She hasn't been texting back or Stop or anything and these numbers are different each time (so can't block them).

Further to my previous post.

This is still happening and I don't know what to do but my Mother cannot continue having extra monies taken.

It would appear that two separate monthly direct debits have been taken out of her account for nearly two years.

My nephew went into the EE shop with Mum after calling them and they said to pop in and they could sort it all out for her. They went in and they were told there was nothing they could do so it was a complete waste of time.

The first direct debit is for 3 phones (Mums sisters and nephews) that they pay to her separately as they are all a fixed monthly rate - it is Mums that is receiving the scam texts and it is pushing the monthly bill up by £45+ and EE have said that there is nothing that they can do - is this true??

Also, Mum took out broadband (at the same time) and in the shop they told her that it was special offer - half price for the duration of the contract. So she signed up and we have only just realised that it was half price for the first 3 months and then it went up to normal price and this is the second direct debit that is being taken out of her account £40+. When we looked on the paperwork it does state this but in the very small print and Mum would most definitely not have seen this as her eyes aren't good and she obviously trusted what they said.

My initial reaction is to tell EE where to stuff all their services and stop all payments as they have been unhelpful and told lies to Mum when she signed up in the shop and taken advantage of an elderly lady. I know this will probably result in being chased for the remaining monies but surely they can't expect Mum to keep paying all this extra money for scam texts that they refuse to do anything about?

I have looked at Ofcom but it says they don't deal with premium text service problems.

Any advice please?

Thanks as always.

Foxy :tinysmile_twink_t2:

[FlamingParrot]

Re: EE Problem - scam messages

That happened to me some years ago, I was waiting for an email and in the meantime went to FB to kill time and spotted a little ad on the side saying "Free IQ Test". I'd just been chatting to a friend who'd written an academic book about what makes kids smarter, etc. and we'd been discussing IQs and their significance so I clicked on the ad (something I wouldn't normally do). The ad went to a page where you just had to answer questions, they didn't ask for personal or financial information. When I completed the test, instead of giving me the result it said the result would be sent to me by text and I had to provide my mobile number. I don't think I ever go the IQ result (just as well, as it must have been very low, since I fell for the scam ) but I started getting texts with silly questions and answers, you know, like: "what's brown and sticky..." sort of thing. They were referred to as brain-teasers or something like that. I just ignored them and they weren't frequent enough to be annoying.

The bills for the next three months were unusually high and it turns out they were charging £9 a week for those brain-teasers. :scared: I contacted Vodafone and the first person who answered the phone was very unhelpful, she accused me of using text dating services and told me "you are using them, don't deny it". :rant: :rant: :rant: I asked to speak to her supervisor who, after a lot of digging, found that the texts were charged by a company called mBlox who, amongst other things, runs text dating services, but also many other "services". I was told to text STOP in reply to their next text which I did, Vodafone washed their hands arguing that they had nothing to do with the charges nor could they stop the texts. I wrote to mBlox and they said I'd allegedly signed up for a text based service and I ticked a box on a website where it said very clearly that I'd be receiving brain-teasers at £9 a week. I think I'd remember if I'd seen that, perhaps it was white text on a white background.

I didn't have the time or the inclination to pursue them further at the time so I didn't get my money back but the texts did stop, and so did the charges. :ohwell:

[nemesis45]

Re: EE Problem - scam messages

A solution I've used with an O2 contract (now) closed because of incoming calls which charge the recipient.

Buy a cheap handset not linked to any provider and a cheap sim card do not use the problem phone
for a couple of months or so then check the charges accrued while the phone was " dormant" in my
case a considerable number of the problem calls were still charged submitted this evidence and received
repayment of charged + redress and was allowed to cancel contract without penalty.
nem