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. 

[MarkC5114]

Having a similar issue after my phone was stolen a while ago. It’s been a depressing experience. I’ve sent this to my ongoing complaint.

Good Afternoon,

Regarding my recent bill please see the following comments.

My mobile phone was stolen during a robbery in the early hours of 30th November 2024. I contacted 3 as soon as possible that day to inform them that I had been a victim of crime and that my phone had been stolen. I requested that my SIM card is blocked and was advised to attend a store to get a new sim. I did this on the 30th and also upgraded my plan in the store, following this experience I truly regret this action.

I contacted my insurance company regarding the theft who requested some information. Proof of the phone purchase and a crime reference number. They also requested that I contact my Network provider and get my IMEI black listed. This is were I started to experience a truly shocking and frankly distressing engagement with 3 customer service. I have been with 3 for over 10 years I believe and I intend to leave as soon as practicable.

From memory it took almost two weeks for 3 to block my IMEI. I spoke to probably 5-6 different agents… and all said slightly different things. I was completely flabbergasted when I was being told to provide proof of usage. My own network provider was asking me to provide information that they essentially had. One handler told me I had to contact apple and this was the only way to get the required information. After speaking to the professional staff at apple they assured me that it was my network provider with this information. Shockingly this saga went on for several more days causing increased stress in my life as It was having financial implications.

After this was sorted I then received my 3 account bill. It had £99.96 of charges from third party including Three pay. I had no idea what this was. Concerned that I was now also a victim of Fraud on top of robbery, I contacted 3 immediately. I informed that agent of the back story and told him that I had asked 3 to block my SIM card on the 30th November. After some investigation the call handler informed me that I was responsible for the charges regardless of my phone being stolen and that I had to contact the third party Tick tok. I spoke to a manager who then questioned whether I had made the transactions and started to dispute the timings of my phone being robbed and reporting it to 3.

I have been told to contact the third party to dispute the charges 3 will take 21 days to do this.

The following points make this experience extremely worrying.

Phone theft in London is prevalent. There are hundreds of victims every month. It is extremely a distressing event. As a multinational established company, your customer care and service around this issue has been atrocious. I truly worry for our vulnerable members of society and how this service will affect them in the event they become similar victims of crime and request your assistance.

Taking almost two weeks to block an IMEI is outrageous and puts your customers at an increased risk of personal data compromise, fraud and further stress. This appears to be common with your company.

I have never authorised any payments to a third party. I assume it will have been in some small print in a Terms and conditions I signed. Nonetheless, the fact that a criminal and take my SIM card and use it to then make purchases and commit fraud against me even after I have flagged the incident is just not good enough. No second authentication, no emails or nothing to confirm the movement of funds. 3 has essentially facilitated this further crime against me, even after contacting them ASAP. Telling me that I am responsible and that it is billed to be is just poor, insensitive and wrong.

I am awaiting contact from the complaints department before my bill is taken on the 9th. If these charges are not removed from my bill I will take the next following steps.

I will be requesting a deadlock letter to the Ombudsman/ofcom.

I will send this email and the further impact statement detailing the effect it has had on me and to the BBC watchdog.

These steps will be taken in an attempt to not be a further victim of crime and also to attempt to flag this matter in your company which may safeguard other consumers.

I will await an update on the 6th January 2025.

Kind Regards

[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