topic Re: Charged for sos scam messages in Contracts & Billing

Charged for sos scam messages

AnnGreen — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 11:22:43 GMT

I noticed a lot of “extras” to my very basic contract, when investigated it appears a “scam” sos message had been sent to numerous contacts ( in text not WhatsApp, which I always use), at the same time on the same date, to the same numbers a number out times. I had been charged 93p for each message., it’s happened twice ( on separate months).
I contacted EE to complain..it has been refunded ( after a bit of a battle) and they have now put a stop on my number to prevent it happening again, which I need to call them to remove if I want it back.

i have a disabled husband so actually an sos option would be useful.. but i can’t risk it happening again.

whats the choice?( apart from going to another provider and that’s difficult where i live!).

Re: Charged for sos scam messages

Christopher_G — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 15:29:42 GMT

Hi @AnnGreen

Welcome to the community.

The bar that the support team have added to your account will stop these out of allowance charges. What SOS message is it that you think would be useful?

Some phones have emergency contacts that you can update. As long as the contact has a UK mobile/landline number, calls and texts should come out of your normal allowances.

In terms of medical emergencies, it's best to contact the emergency services. Some phones also have key presses to make it easier too.

Chris

Re: Charged for sos scam messages

bristolian — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 15:54:05 GMT

If you're describing the functionality I think you are, it's not a scam so much as a misunderstood phone function.

I've no idea about Apple, but Android phones have an "emergency SOS" option whereby particular keypresses trigger a text message of your choosing to be sent to one or more contacts, also of your choosing.

These are standard text messages thus should be part of your allowance. They're also a phone feature, so changing networks won't achieve anything.

I concur with the likelihood of the bar being imposed by CS, being either one of premium-rate services or a standard spend cap - you should have received a text message notification of the latter. What exactly is shown on your bill against this 93p charge? Because that's not the charge even for non-inclusive texts.