Google play charges after phone stolen

[Lthurston13]

I have been on the phone to three for two days. My phone was stolen in February and they managed to link my phone number to another google account then spend money that’s been charged to my phone bill. I’ve been getting texts through with them saying they’ve spent the money. I can see it on the incurred charges on my bill. Three have been absolutely useless, they told me I have to take it up with google. So I’ve spent all day doing that, got through but they have said categorically I have to get a Correlation ID from Three. They would not help me or entertain anything else. Three say they cannot give this to me and it’s up to google to deal with it and they don’t have this number. Went back to google who shut it down saying yes they do and they will not help me without it, nothing they can do take it up with Three. Three said again take it up with google. So here I am with someone charging money to my mobile phone bill with absolutely no way to stop this fraud as three don’t take proper precautions or fraud prevention methods when using three pay. I’m still getting texts as they rack up more money but both three and google say it isn’t there responsibility. 

so I’m stuck with thinking the only way to stop it is to pay to get out of my contract and move to an alternative supplier that doesn’t allow this without restrictions such as O2 or Sky who don’t allow it all, as everyday I risk a higher cost from fraud with no way out!

does anyone have any experience of this or managed to get an correlation id? 

[JonathanB]

Hi @Raviyo,

I'm really sorry to hear this, did this start after your phone and/or SIM was stolen like in the case of the OP? If so, did you report this to the police and get a crime reference number for the incident?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Raviyo]

Thanks for the response 🙂
Yes this started after my phone was stolen. I did report to the police and get a crime reference yes.

[JonathanB]

Hi @Raviyo,

Thanks for this, I've sent you a PM with info on how to get more help.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan

[jesssnr1010]

Please can you private message me with a solution here? Not having much luck yet.

[JonathanB]

Hi @jesssnr1010,

I'll do my best to help, just to double check, so the situation is similar to what the OP described? Have you been receiving charges after your phone was stolen, and these have persisted after you updated to a new phone/SIM? Was the theft reported to the police at the time?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Shuss]

I have been having the same issue. Could you help me sort this out before more money is taken?

[JonathanB]

Hi @Shuss,

I'm sorry to hear you've been affected by this issue. Just to clarify, I know you've said it's the same issue, but can you confirm that you've incurred subscription charges following the theft of your phone? And was this reported to the Police who supplied a crime reference number?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Raviyo]

Make sure you have an official complaint number from three mobile. After it not being resolved , you will get referred to the ombudsmen.

I agreed via the ombudsmen process that I would be refunded to date, and that three would help stop these charges. However since, the charges have continued and three have offered no support to help stop them. Therefore I reopened the case with the ombudsment, which got accepted, and it's now in another stage awaiting deliberation.

I had also been in touch with the three office, but after a while they started ignoring my emails.

It's been costing me a lot of money, and most importantly time and stress. This has been going on since Jan and 3 have offered no support.

It's absolutely ridiculous and I have now asked as part of the ombudsmen appeal process for three to cancel my contract early with no charges, so that I can go to a more reliable phone provider, who quite frankly give a sh*t about their customers.

Sorry you're going through this but keep persistent with three and the ombudsmen.

Make sure you have set your credit limit and spend limit to £0.

[CristinaLuna002]

hi, I am sorry you are going through this. I went through it myself and it is very anxiety provoking…

I am pasting here the response I posted on the thread back in the days with how I resolved it, but basically I ended up emailing their CEO and it was only after that when things got moving. They refunded me with all the fraudulent charges, let me break my contract without any cancellation fees and gave me £75 as an apology… which wasn’t much . 
Pasting here what I did answer on a previous thread 

I felt the need to come back here to share how my case was resolved. The past two months have been incredibly stressful since this incident occurred.
I was charged multiple times through Google Pay (via an app called Poppo Live), with the total bill amounting to over £350.
The most anxiety-inducing part was the unpredictability of the charges—they could appear at any time, even after I set a £0 credit limit on my account.

I contacted numerous operators through 333, raised the issue with the Three complaint team via phone call (3 unresolved complaints), and submitted two claims to Google.

Unfortunately, Google is impossible to contact (there is no contact number anywhere - despite the operators at Three provided me with 3 different contact numbers for Google that would not work!). After 2 claims to Google, they informed me that I needed to deal with my phone provider as they didn’t have enough information about the charges.
Out of desperation, I sent an email to Robert Finnegan, the CEO of Three, and his executive team. It wasn’t until then that things finally started to move forward.

In my email, I requested the following:

• A refund of the fraudulent charges that had already been debited from my bank account.
• The cancellation of pending charges still associated with my account.
• The ability to terminate my two-year contract (which was set to run until January 2026) without paying the £240 early cancellation fee.
• Assurance that no further third-party charges would be applied to my account in the meantime.

All of these requests were accepted. I am currently awaiting the refund to my bank account, the pending charges have been cancelled, and I have received confirmation that I can terminate my contract with Three without incurring any penalties, as I no longer trust this provider (I am waiting for these to be actioned but I have received a confirmation stating that that will be the case)

It’s deeply frustrating that a situation that should have been resolved promptly dragged on for over two months, severely impacting my mental health and causing significant anxiety. Ultimately, the issue only started to be addressed after myself, a customer who had been a victim of fraud, escalated it personally to the CEO.

This is shocking and I never thought that I would do so but I didn’t have any choice.

My willingness to come back and post the resolution here is just an attempt to help and offer my experience to other victims that are also suffering out there. I did made the executive team aware of the existence of these conversations in this forum. I hope they will make some changes.

In the meantime I had to post here out of empathy. As I have been in this situation and it is really frustrating, difficult and you feel very lonely and helpless. 

My wish is that every single person here is supported and protected by Three. I hope my experience is of help and can give you some ideas if after many escalations/complaints the issue is not solved. It is not ideal but after 2 months is the only thing that worked for me.

On another note, the social media team was helpful throughout the process, I would’ve appreciated this help after the theft happened, instead of 2 months after a some many nights struggling to sleep..

they refunded me all the fraudulent charges and let me go and change provider without paying an early cancellation fee. 
they also sent me £75 as an apology.

so there is hope, but my only option was to email their CEO directly…
best of luck if you also going through this.

[jesssnr1010]

Thank you so much for posting this Cristina, the whole situation has indeed been incredibly stressful and anxiety inducing.

How do I email the CEO?

I admire you for sharing this. It is such a ridiculous flaw with Three and I'm definitely going to be moving provider.