EE Fraud / Sony PlayStation Unauthorised payment

[RMG_7]

Hi

Please can you help me.

My daughter is an EE customer and on the 17th October when she was in bed and her phone was in another room, Sony charged to her phone 6 x charges, see below totalling £223.94. This a noticed when my recent bill was paid.

We have no contact texts from either EE nor Sony NOR DO WE EVEN OWN A SONY PLAYSTATION!!!  This was a fraudulent, illegal and was authorised by EE as far as I am concerned and in this instance an innocent child is the victim which is not good and EE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION as it is Sony this time, who / what next..?  

Please can you reimburse these unauthorised charges immediately as I want to avoid going down the legal route (but have spoken to local police re this fraud) which will incur more cost and will take time but I am prepared to do this as these costs I cannot afford to pay and it causes financial 
Stress. My trust in EE as a service provider for my children is now in question. I have tried to call the Sony customer service number on my bill but is constantly closed. 
Future more, this needs to be urgently addressed by EE to safeguard other vulnerable children (and adults) All 3rd party charges should be automatically checked for verification by EE before payment is made, either by text or via the EE App. 

[RMG_7]

Link Link Link.... 150 150 150... it is totally outrageous that this is still happening to innocent victims knowingly by EE!!! have the contract set up form the outset that  no 3rd party payments can be taken with out authorisation, not small print and a default "door open " take what you want up until its notice and then "the door will be closed" is actually ethically wrong and this should be escalated to the highest level in the nation, no other providers (to my knowledge) behaves or leaves their customers open to such financial online abuse, terrible in todays world where the "fat cats" get fetter and allow such scams to continue... There needs to be a collective voice for the victims in this case and challenge EE on this.. is there somewhere in the small print that a scammer can gain access / control to a Childs camera as default and only when this occurs are they then sent to yet another link and have to text STOP to 160.....?!?! 

Living expenses are hard enough in todays world and for EE to not only offer to act on behalf of it customers and get this sorted but at least admit that they've a flaw in their security to allow scammers to abuse their customers to be abused and in most case young children like my own who don't even own a Play Station, and for telling us to contact Sony, Sony (to my knowledge) did not take the money, scammers did. This really needs sorted and EE should escalate this internally to its highest authority.

R

[Liz2345]

I had a reply BOKU who have now said as a ‘goodwill’ gesture they are going to refund me the £170, so they bloody should!…initially they said they couldn’t refund me as my account closed ,which is incorrect as phone account still live, they then said as it was over 45 days ago they couldn’t look into it…..Harris from EE contacted BOKU   them directly for me, Monies will go back account so will just pay future phone bills, but I will believe it when I see it and won’t be giving good feedback to BOKU until I’m certain they will go through with their promise as they keep pestering me to rate their service .

SONY/BOKU and EE all tried to go down  the route of ‘I think your child has passed the 4 digit code onto a friend or someone online though which is not the case!

[Notagain11]

As it is today, it happened to my daughter's phone. She has been charged 4 x £ 34.99, and it also shows as Sony station, which we do not own. This is quite worrying; scammers target young children. And the customer service team was indifferent in this matter, trying to put the blame on the customers.

[Ali_A]

Hi @Notagain11 

It's disappointing to hear that charges have shown up unexpectedly on your account. I understand how frustrating that can be. 

Has your daughter in the past few months had any of her friends asking for help to get into their "locked-out social media account" or something similar, and then received messages with codes which they then gave their friend?

Ali 

[Jennyhope12]

No, this didn’t happen. I reviewed her phone and she doesn’t delete things or hide things. This is honestly an EE issue. I hope this helps you- but there are so many people that have had the exact same issues, so I hope you sort it. EE should not give 3rd parties full access to charge through their platform in any situation. It’s a breach of trust and will likely deter others from signing on with EE in the future. I hope EE takes this on board, but I am sure legislation will soon come in to make this illegal. Thanks for asking.

[garybs29]

A scam from a 3rd party is not an EE issue. Why everyone seems to think it is i don't know. Would be possible to happen with any provider who offers the add to bill service

[NoNonsense1]

Wrong. It is an EE issue as they've allowed the scam to happen. This means EE security is not fit for purpose regarding purchases that show on the phone bill.

The only work around they have to stop it is to stop any purchases at all being made to add to the phone bill.

I got my £160 back and they were brilliant in rectifying my credit file after I refused to pay that amount and paid my normal bill then had an issue where a colleague had nkt set the direct debit up properly.

EE are unsure how the scammers managed to do this but my younger brother had not received a text to confirm he had used his phone for a purchase or any other texts regarding thIs, even from EE.

If a purchase is added, similar to banks, EE should be checking in to make sure it is legitimate.

[Chris_B]

@Jennyhope12  EE is only the payment method they are not billing you it’s Sony.  A charge to bill is passed over to you on the account as the purchase was placed against the number.      

As much as you think it shouldn’t be allowed there a many customers who use this service to purchase apps/music even making charity donations.  

When a charge to bill is setup a verification code should be sent,  this then needs approval via the user of that device. EE doesn’t know at the time that that it’s not the user making these transactions. 

and as you try and point out that it will deter people from joining EE in the future I’m sorry to say it’s not just on EE it on other networks also.   

The main thing I notice about all these post is that its children on their parents accounts that are being billed..  

[NoNonsense1]

No. No verification was sent in my instance. None at all. The funds were taken. Keep in mind all 4 purchases in my instance were made within 30 seconds of one another. It would be impossible for a human to make that purchase 4 times in 30 seconds.

Again, EE refunded the funds to me and managed to resolve the situation with the firm that took the funds as they are unreachable.  That to me is, rightfully, EE accepting some responsibility for the situation. If they had no fault they would not have refunded my £160 and paid that off my bill then chased Sony/Boku to resolve.

We then agreed to put a bar on any mobile purchases ever being made to stop scammers accessing this method of funding.

Please don't state fact that, from experience isn't fully fact. The fact it is a widespread issue is proof EE need to work to fix the situation and ensure people in future are not charged for things they have not had.

The fact my brother, and other people posting here's kids, don't have Sony products points further to a scam. My brother is on Xbox. If those were from Microsoft I'd believe them to be possibly legitimate. Not when they are Sony.