Sony unauthorised payments

[Cakey1975]

Looks like this is a problem with Sony taking money via EE has anyone ever been refunded as EE say it’s not their problem basically and to contact Sony can’t get passed the BOT with Sony as I don’t have an account any help appreciated as we have had 4 payment taken out in 1 min ! 

[Stevemu7]

I’ve sent the mail to Boku now, with a crime number from Greater Manchester Police. 

I think the next step is the Ombudsman, it’s a real shame that the support on here aren’t giving this guidance. 

if this was your bank or credit card they wouldn’t send you chasing the fraudsters would they. EE need to take ownership of this weakness. Thanks Customer13

[Shanni10]

Got same issue on sons mobile. It looks like he has visited some site or some scam offer where his number has been taken and someone has used his number for Sony playstation addons. Theres been lot of scam messages like like "Can you help, sim card is blocked, need to get pin number as customer service needs a number, can I use yours?". Or have added details to some company scam like Argos/Currys etc  giving away free stuff to first 100 people etc.

So for awareness, this isnt EEs fault and they cannot cancel 3rd party payments, even if made fraudulently. However, they should be checking any fraudulent charges suddenly appearing on bills just like banks do.

I have emailed Boku with a crime ref. Lets see if they respond and give credit back. As Boku is an indian payment centre, they dont give a rats a55 about scams as its not their job, as they see it.

"If you've been charged, it’s because your mobile number has been set up and verified as a payment method and the cost of what you've bought has been added to your bill" - EE website

[Rach_H]

Hi @Shanni10,

Welcome to the Community!

Have you been able to reach out to Sony to query this? Your son should've recieved a text receipt with the details of these charges.

Rach

[Shanni10]

I emailed Boku directly with a crime reference, told them will get police to investigate. They responded within 2 days and put a stop to the payments. They said my son activated it but it seems they have hidden recurring charges which isnt mentioned. As it was £6.99 for 6 months, i didnt bother asking them for refund

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Shanni10 

Thanks for coming back to us with an update. 

Our Third Party Phone Bill Charges Help page has information and ways to bar any future third party charges.

Thanks very much. 

Leanne.

[Scammed2]

The same scam has happened to my daughter. She doesn't have a PlayStation, therefore why would we have a Sony account. 

Yet someone had managed to run up a £160 PlayStation bill in two minutes without anyone at EE flagging these unauthorised purchases. 

Terrible customer service. 

[Customer1916]

Just to let all know, I did get paid in full from Boku via PayPal minus the transaction fee from them. It took 3 weeks for it to be processed. I’ve since left EE. 

[Stevemu7]

I chased EE, who did nothing, chased PlayStation who also did nothing, complained to Boku via email, who did respond and refunded my EE account, although I had to pay my EE bill which was around £240, so after being credited £183 back from Boku left me with a negative balance for a few months. It’s just simply not good enough from EE, not even a text message to confirm costs!! If someone was buying something for PlayStation legitimately why would they stick it on their phone bill?? It’s fraud EE why not help your customers?? And if someone from EE replies to this saying it’s not us it’s Sony then you simply don’t understand everyone in this group!!!

Regards

***** ********

[Mod edit: Please do not post personal information on the public board. Thanks!]

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Stevemu7 

Thank you for coming back to the community. 

Our Third Party Phone Bill Charges and charge-to-bill-consumer-code-of-practice has full details on charge to bill, including credit limits, who is responsible for the charges and how to escalate if this has not been resolved. 

To stop any future third party charges to the bill, please text BAR to 150, or contact us by phone and we will add a bar to your number.

Thanks.

Leanne. 

[Customer13]

Hi Leanne_T

There is no use posting the 3rd part charges, this does not help anyone on here to get their money back.

EE are at fault for not having the appropriate security to prevent this from happening, why should customers have to do this themselves? If you have a bar in place it prevents you from accessing anything with a 3rd party, an example is if you want to text a competition which charges you.

Customers want a form of security that asks for authorisation or even notifications that something is trying to access a 3rd party via their phone number.