Stolen Phone - Google Play/Tiktok Coin Charges

[LauraJade1995]

My pay monthly phone was unfortunately stolen on the evening of the 3rd of March. The next day, I did all the usual things you would do in this scenario. However, it came to light a month later when I came to pay my phone bill, that the thief had purchased numerous Tiktok Coins, via Google Play, totalling around £110. I have never purchased anything via Google Play nor have I ever purchased Tiktok Coins. Upon speaking to Three on this, they are unable to assist with this as this is a 'third party' charge. At this point I have done everything I can possibly could do, I even had to change my mobile number.

I thought after this, that would be the last of it. However, despite securing my accounts, cancelling cards, the lot, I have received another charge this month, which suggests this has been sent on some sort of 're-occurring' charge.

I just need to ensure this doesn't happen again, can you please offer any advice on this?

[Khanny1]

Hi, i've been experiencing the same thing since my phone got stolen in September 2024. I have tried numerous time with three and with Google Play to have these charges stoped / refunded, neither has offered any assistance!  Have you been able to find a solution until now?  

Note: I contacted Three and asked them to set my credit limit to £0, and they told me they can only increase my credit limit, not decrease it!

Worst network provider i've ever dealt with.

[PeteG]

Hello there. 

It sounds like the advice you were given is wrong. The credit limit can be decreased, that's ultimately what it's there for. Sounds like the agent was confused, and I'd recommend getting in touch with the team again to have it changed. You can register a complaint about the issue on our complaints page as well, and the team can look into it for you. 

Pete.

[Lida1233566]

Hi I am in the same situation! What did you do to resolve this ?

[CristinaLuna002]

Hi all, 
I am going exactly through the same problem and scam with three. My phone got stolen on the 30/11 and since the I have been charged over 300 pounds of charges that are not mine. They are coming via Google Play (which I have never used) and through an app called Poppo live. 
I have called three several times, put two complaints but they are useless and would not do anything about it. I submitted a claim to Google with the Correlation ID of the charges, but this was also useless as they Closed the complaint and sent a notification about contacting my Financial institution (which is actually not connected at all with this scam).

I am going to change provider despite the fee of breaking the contract earlier as I cannot afford (Nor want) to keep paying charges that are not mine. I am absolutely shocked by how little Three, the police and Action Fraud are doing about it (I obviously reported to all of them too)
I have a very important question and I need anyone in the same situation to give me their advice. 

Would you also change number when you change phone provider? My preference is to keep my number as there is so much hassle when you change phone number.. but unsure whether these charges would keep on coming even tho...
Many thanks..

[CristinaLuna002]

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..

best of luck if you also going through this.

[JonathanB]

Hi @CristinaLuna002,

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences since your phone was stolen, and that there hasn't been a solution from your complaint or contacting the Police or Action Fraud. We'd like to take a closer look into this for you. I'll send you a PM to help you contact some colleagues. I'd recommend to have your crime reference number when you get in touch so that we can escalate this for you.

In terms of a number change, we're not sure this will resolve the matter, but this can be done on your Three account on request. I'd recommend to log this with the colleagues I'm directing to, and we'll check into the best solution.

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

[Musoman]

This exact thing has happened to me and I can’t seem to make progress on my complaint with 3. Could you help at all?

[PeteG]

Hello, Musoman. 

At Community, there isn't any way for anyone to access your account information. If you haven't had success getting the charges to stop through the 3rd party company, my advice would be to speak to the Support Team and request for the credit limit on your account to be set to £0. This will block 3rd party charges from going through. 

Pete.

[webboggles]

Sign my petition to put an end to this: https://www.change.org/p/implement-transaction-verification-for-phone-paid-services-charged-to-mobil...