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!

[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. 

[Loopops]

Did anything come of this? my Son has just had 3 Boku charges on his account, even with a 0 spend cap, Three gave me the number mentioned in this thread before to call, who are Boku, not Playstation as the Three agent told me. 

They have been closed every time I've tried to call, I've raised a ticket and 24 hours later, still no response.

I don't understand how if my account is set to 0 spend cap, that Three can accept charges to my account without verifying them first?

3 years my Son has had this account at £20 a month, suddenly this month it is £140, and Three don't think there is anything suspicious?

If this isn't resolved, I'll be moving all of my family to another provider. Knowing it doesn't dent anything with Three, it will be out of protest.

[PeteG]

In order for 3rd party charges to go through, a verification is needed. There's a couple of ways that can happen, but I believe that authorisation for setting up carrier billing on PlayStation is done via text message. A text is sent to the phone number, and then a reply back to that message has to be made in order to enable the service. Boku should be able to confirm if this was the case though. 

I'm unsure why you haven't been able to get through to them though, I guess you could try their contact us page though and see if you can reach them there. 

Pete.