Fraudulent Third Party Charges Made Through my Phone Bill After Phone Was Stolen

[Anto]

This is a copy of a complaint I sent via a complain form. A similar email was sent to your CEO, Robert Finnegan. I will start using social media as early as tomorrow. 

I'm making a complaint as, after numerous calls to your escalation team which has led to a resolution not to be charged from fraudulent third party charges of £148.27 made on my phone after it was stolen, I've just received the bill with the third party charges in question. The escalation team had assured me these charges would not appear on my bill.

My iPhone 13 was stolen on 14 August and I went to ask for a replacement card to a Three Mobile Store which I'm using on an Android phone at the moment. I immediately saw text messages with the third party charges. I complained and escalated the complaint to the escalation team who assured me that I was not going to be charged for these charges.

I received two further third party charges on 28 August and your customer service team had to change my number. They guaranteed me that I was not going to be charged for these last two charges.

I would like to stress that you should not allow third party charges on my bill unless I gave consent which I haven't. Furthermore, third party charges on a phone bill are the most unsecured type of transactions and you should not allow them under any circumstance, particularly if you do not take responsibility when the transactions are fraudulent. No customers have interest in allowing third party charges as they can pay via credit cards where transactions are insured. The only reasons you allow third party charges on your phone bills is, therefore, for the economic interest of your business.

I will give you 48 hours to resolve this matter after  which time I will make a complaint to the Ombudsman, contact the press and television and send them a copy of the email I've sent to your CEO, Robert Finnegan, and I will leave Three Mobile for another provider.

In the meantime, I have cancelled my direct debit with Three Mobile and I'll pay the bill only when this is rectified. 

[ClarkePJ]

Hello, I am in the exact same situation right now which is highly distressing. Could you please advise as soon as possible as I am being defrauded right now.

[23588]

Was this ever resolved?

[JonathanB]

Hi @Anto,

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences in terms of your phone being stolen and then subsequently used for charge to bill services. When we receive a report of a stolen phone, or are requested to replace a SIM the old SIM card is blocked and deactivated immediately, so it sounds like this must have taken place in a very short window of time after the theft if you visited the Three store shortly after the incident.

Did you have contact with our complaints team since you posted, please let us know what the result has been and if you still require any help.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[jiggy]

Hey any update with this? I’m in the exact same situation. 

[JonathanB]

Hi @jiggy,

I'm really sorry to hear this, was your phone stolen also, and you've received info about premium charges? Please let me know a little bit more about what's happened, and I'll do my best to get you in touch with some more support with this.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[ClarkePJ]

Hi Jonathan. I am in the exact same situation and desperately need assistance and advice. I will summarize my situation for you below but please advise as soon as possible. I am being defrauded literally while I type this message which is highly distressing.

I've been a Three Customer for 7+ years. On 30 October 2024 I was mugged and my phone stolen in central London- a traumatic experience. The theft took place at 23:00 at night. In the 7-hour window between that theft and when Three's Customer service opened at 08:00 the next morning (to allow me to cancel my Sim Card) the criminal has somehow hacked your Three Pay system linked to my account (despite me never having enabled Three Pay at all). Therefore for my November bill they made unauthorised charges against my phone number using Three Pay and ran up a bill of over £160, which I was apparently liable for. 

I have tried every possible avenue to address this clear case of fraud with your complaints team and I'm sorry to say that they have not been able to help. I have had at least five different Customer Service members email requesting the same basic information from me while promising an investigation that will take 21 days. I have complied with every data request but unfortunately that 21 days has come and gone and there has still been no resolution. I even paid the extortionately high and unjust November bill as a show of good faith in the hope that Three would look into this as a matter of priority and reimburse me extremely quickly.

To my dismay, I have just received my bill for December which is again extortionately high at over £150. Again, to my dismay, when I look into the details of the bill, it is clear that the same criminal is hacking the Three Pay system to buy the same services using Google Play and I can apparently do nothing at all about this.

I know this is an issue you are aware of as I have seen several message board threads of other Three customers that have been through the exact same thing and they have noted how you as CEO have personally intervened to resolve the situation.

Even if Three eventually decides to reimburse me for the obviously fraudulent charges, I am still very concerned that, despite cancelling my sim card and ordering a new one, here we are in December and the criminal has apparently still been able to make fraudulent charges on my account throughout November.  This is a clear breach of Three's security which obviously threatens my own digital security.

I'm sure you can understand by now that I'm simply haemorrhaging money to a criminal (as if being assaulted was not traumatic enough) and that I am apparently powerless to do anything about it. I simply cannot wait for another promise of an investigation to conclude as your Three Pay system linked to my phone number is clearly compromised. I looked again this morning and can see nearly £30 of unauthorised charges were made on the 11 Decrmber -  that will be added to my next bill as well. 

I simply see no choice but to terminate my contract with Three. Incredibly, because I signed a new Pay Montly contract with Three in September - I would essentially be liable for terminating my contract early and need to pay Three to get out of a situation that they have been unable to fix - all to stop losing money to a criminal. 

I'm sure you can see how unfair this is. I therefore implore you to intervene on my behalf and help me resolve the issue. I'm now losing money daily which is highly distressing. 

You can reach me here or by calling me on my Three number 

Please advise as soon as possible, even just to acknowledge my email. I simply can't keep losing money like this as a victim of fraud.

[JonathanB]

Hi @ClarkePJ,

I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences, firstly of your phone being stolen, but worse that you've incurred ongoing charges as a result. I hope that we're able to help resolve this swiftly for you. It's my understanding that your complaint is being addressed by the appropriate department, and that you're receiving ongoing updates from them?

Thanks,
Jonathan