Unauthorised Charges by Boku on My Daughter’s Phone Bill – Advice Needed

[Nkosi]

Hi everyone,I’m posting here to raise awareness and seek advice about an issue I’ve encountered with unauthorised charges on my daughter’s mobile phone bill.

I recently noticed extra charges on her phone account, which is under my name and managed by me. Her monthly bill is capped, so it shouldn’t exceed the contracted amount. After contacting the provider (Three), I discovered that these charges were for Boku.com, a third-party payment service that works with my provider.

The charges were for PlayStation Network services, but neither I nor my 12-year-old daughter own a PlayStation or have a PlayStation Network account. Importantly, my daughter is a minor and cannot legally enter into such agreements. Even if she attempted to subscribe to anything, it would require my authorisation, which never happened.

What’s worse is that we had never heard of Boku before this, never signed up for their services, and were never notified of any agreements or charges.

This situation raises several concerns for me:

1. How was Boku able to authorise charges without explicit consent from me as the account holder?

2. Why wasn’t I notified about these transactions before they were billed?

From my research, it seems this could violate UK consumer protection laws, including:

• The Consumer Rights Act 2015, which ensures protection from unauthorised charges.

• The Payment Services Regulations 2017, which require clear consent for payments.

• The UK GDPR, which protects personal data from being used without explicit permission.

I’ve already contacted Boku to demand an immediate refund and assurance that my daughter’s phone number will not be used for their services again. However, I wanted to share my experience here in case others have faced similar issues and to ask:

1. Has anyone else experienced unauthorised charges from Boku or similar third-party services?

2. What steps did you take to resolve the issue?

3. Do you think I should escalate this to the Financial Ombudsman or the ICO if I don’t get a satisfactory response?

I’ll keep this post updated with any progress, but for now, I want to warn others to check their phone bills carefully—especially for numbers used by children.Thanks in advance for any advice or similar stories you can share!

[Chadsta]

My Grandaughter has a phone that is in my name. Charges have been applied by Boku for psn. She received several codes and then txt messages from her friend asking for the codes so she could get back on her tik tok account. My granddaughter sent the codes then called her friend asking what they are and her friend knew nothing about it. I have had charges added to the bill and debited from my bank. 

[Saraswat_harsh]

It is happening without authentication I don't have tiktok account or soul chat accounts and all of sudden I receive text stating that I have made purchases through play store.  My play store don't showing me any transactions. Someone else is doing it while the sim is in my phone & I am not getting any passcode or otp for transactions. 

[AniaG]

I've just read your message. There was no text message or notification sent to my phone either from Boku or PlayStation. There were around 10 transactions in the past few months... I'm really interested in seeing whether Boku comes back to me and then I will speak to Three. Reporting to Ombudsman may be the solution if Boku or Three fails to take any tangible action.