Fraudulent Google Play Transactions

literallyJoel · ‎31-03-2022

My phone was stolen on Saturday March 5th, and over the next 10 minutes or so they racked up £239.51 of charges over 19 Google Play transactions. They were not made on my own Google account. I went into an EE store to get a replacement SIM on the Monday and told them that my phone had been stolen. I did not discover the charges until today when my bank notified me of the upcoming direct debit.

I have tried contacting Google Support and they directed me to a form to report these transactions, but they require a Correlation ID. I cannot find any information on this and all the support agent would tell me is "Your carrier will provide this". Any help either getting the Correlation ID or disputing these charges with EE would be much appreciated.

tmobilefan · ‎31-03-2022

Oh, that sucks ... just wondering if you reported to the police

umm and the other question did you have GPS and wifi enabled extra information like this may help with the credit google is not the easiest to get in contact with you made take a wile

all the best ..

literallyJoel · ‎31-03-2022

@tmobilefan I have none of that information as once the phone was stolen, they took the SIM card out of the phone and used it in a different one to make these charges. The phone has a passcode and was locked, and the transactions were made on a different google account so they can't have used my phone. I didn't report it to the police no, in the past it has had literally no value, the police don't do any kind of investigation at all, I only reported it to EE when I went to get a new SIM.

James_B · ‎31-03-2022

Hi @literallyJoel,

Have you asked Google support if they can track the transactions via your mobile number?

James

literallyJoel · ‎31-03-2022

I've now managed to get the Correlation IDs requested by Google!

Here's how in case someone with the same issue sees this later.

If you have the same issue where Google requires a correlation ID and tells you EE have it:

EE do not have it, Google are wrong. They are actually held by a company that Google uses called Boku.

What you need to do is go to customer.boku.com/login

If you've not used the portal before there'll be a button for "send me a pin", press that, put in your phone number, and then use the PIN they send you to login. It'll then present you with a list of all the transactions and the ID that Google is looking for.

I don't know why Google constantly seems to send people to their mobile providers for the information, but it's Boku - a company that GOOGLE uses - that has it.

James_B · ‎31-03-2022

Thanks for sharing your solution @literallyJoel

James

tmobilefan · ‎31-03-2022

sorry to hear you lost the conference with the police,

you would have from google the time date and the last location your phone was turned off,

example google device last contacted the network @ 19:51 30 March 2022

unknown device contacted the network @ 20:09 31 march 2022

any active form this time will be requested as a new device on your phone account, a new digital fingerprint will show up on your account

literallyJoel · ‎31-03-2022

@James_B Yeah no worries. I've seen both on and off this forum several people with the same issue. Google seem to just be routinely lying to people, and I've reported them to the regulator for doing so. But yeah in future, if someone asks you lot about a 'Correlation ID' for Google, you just gotta direct em to the boku page.

tmobilefan · ‎31-03-2022

Correlation IDs requested by Google!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_UPasLVRRiTIcnVPAh94DSclLUJYgSe7Huszupot7jw/htmlpresent

is this what is referred to as google correlation id? just asking the question

literallyJoel · ‎31-03-2022

@tmobilefan I think so? It's essentially just another term for a Transaction ID (the payment processor, Boku, referred to it as a Transaction ID rather than a Correlation ID)

DurbanboyUK · ‎07-04-2022

I also recommend setting a pin on your sim card, so if it is removed from your phone/device and put in another because you secured the phone, the fraudsters have another problem to crack 😉