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!

[PeteG]

Hello, Nkosi. 

It's disappointing to hear that charges have shown up unexpectedly on your account. I do understand how frustrating that can be. 

Charges from 3rd party companies go through an authentication process, and can't be applied without the user of the phone approving them. I gave my Nephew my phone one night when I was visiting my sister for dinner, we had a delicious meal, and the night concluded as well as any other. A couple of weeks later, I noticed some charges to PlayStation Network/Boku on my account, and that's not something I ever set up or authorised my self, at least not directly. 

It turned out that when I gave my Nephew the phone he and his friend used my number to buy online currency in a game they enjoy to playing together. To do this, they had to enter the phone number on their console, and a verification message was sent to the phone, something he and his friend was able to intercept and accept.  

While he was the one using the phone, I was liable for the charges as the contract was mines and I am the account holder. I gave someone else position of the phone and didn't place a restriction or any limits on the account to protect my self. I was quite upset to say the least, Fortnight isn't even that good of a game. 

Anyway, I'll do my best to answer a few of your concerns and questions, starting with the concerns you highlighted: 
1. I toughed on this a little while explaining what happened to me above. The phone number is entered into a service, the service sends a message to the phone, and the phone user accepts it. If they do not, the charge/subscription can't start.
2. A notification was likely sent and received by the main user of the phone, or anyone else that might have been using it at the time. As these are real time services, once that charge is accepted, it's applied. 

The consumer rights act doesn't seem to be in breach here. 
The service in question is Three Pay/Carrier billing, which has been established and used for many years, and is regulated, there isn't anything untoward happing there. 
GDPR does protect user data, and Carrier billing doesn't breach those rules. As mentioned earlier, it's an established and regulated service. All data used is used for the purpose of provided the requested service.

And for the questions you asked:
1. It has happened to my self as I mentioned above, and there are some stories you have perhaps seen online or in the news before where children, or even their friends have built up charges on a mobile phone or tablet. It's best to have the account locked down when providing it to someone else. 
2. I resolved my issue by not being so trusting with my own phone, but if I was giving my phone to another person to use full time, Id have the credit limit on the account set to £0, allowing no additional spend without my direct permission. 
3. I don't believe the financial ombudsman would be involved here, a complaint of this kind would likely fall to the Communications Ombudsman. Whichever one is right, whether you should go to them is entirely up to you. If you think the complaint has had the incorrect outcome, and would like to have that complaint looked at by them, then you can do that. As for the ICO, I'm not sure if any breach or mishandling of data has occurred here based on what you've described, so I'm not sure it would be something they can assist with. 

I hope the information is of some use. 

Pete.