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!

[Adamski]

Literally just had this problem today, bill came in at 109 pound on my daughters phone, 100 pound worth of PlayStation charges from boku.com. Phoned three they couldn't help me so told me to contact boku. My daughter doesn't own a PlayStation like yourself was very shocked to see that this morning.

[Clairedin]

I am experiencing the exact same thing at the moment. BOKU are saying they can only refund me 6 months worth of charges (they go back to June 2024) and three have not been helpful either offering just £50 when the charges amount to £187.90. 
I would be interested to know how you proceeded as I am also considering complaining to the ombudsman, both the financial ombudsman regarding BOKU and communications regarding Three. I feel as my provider they should have offered more support in recouping the funds from BOKU on my behalf. My daughter’s phone also has a spending cap of £0 and requires authorisation from me if she even wishes to download an app. 

[Maxine]

Hey @Clairedin 

It's understandable that unexpected charges isn't great.

It seems like our team have done everything they can to get some of the charges back to you and gone out of our process to help with this. With Three Pay, this isn't actually Three that's charging you, this is a third party that charges you through your Three bill.

It's stated that the mobile phone owner is responsible for their device and should be aware that it can be used to purchase goods and services from third parties, this is through Phonepaid Services Authority. 

You can find all the information about Three Pay here

Maxine

[Mum8936]

Exact same thing happening to my daughter now. Were you successful in having a refund? She is unaware of any purchase and I also had a spend cap

[Saraswat_harsh]

The only solution is contact three & ask for Correlation ID for the transaction.  Then go to Google and claim refund.   

https://payments.google.com/payments/u/0/unauthorizedtransactions

[Khalil2944]

My son had the same problem and I am in big trouble. Half of my salary has been added to my monthly bill for three company . I tried to find any solution to my problem but I didn't find anything. I contacted three company They did not correct the problem and left me to face my fate by myself and did not offer me help in finding a solution to my problem and asked me to search for the solution. The three company they don't have any protection for there customers and leave them alone facing their problems 28/02/2025 

[PeteG]

Hello, Khalil.  

The issues you're having are understandably concerning. Having a large part of your income go to an unexpectedly high phone bill isn't great. 

Generally when it comes to 3rd party charges, the only place the charges can be queries and disputed is with the company applying the charge. If you highlight the issue with the company in question, they might be able to help. 

Pete.

[AniaG]

Hi there, I've also experienced similar problem for a significant amount of money in the last few months. I am not even able to call Boku - there's only an option of leaving a message. May I ask you whether they got back in touch with you? Please keep me posted. If needed, I'd like to support any steps that people take to block companies that obtain people's phone numbers to carry out transactions. Thank you.  

[Katiethree3]

Exactly the same experience encountered on 10/01/25 max out something called three pay which I was aware could even be used to purchase aunts my bill provider . Three have been so unhelpful when I flagged the transactions and told them it was not me I don’t feel protected at all as a customer . In my experiences of the charged I was sent a text from PSN (PlayStation) with a four digit code now my conclusion is only I have that code right ? So how was it used to make these payments when it was not me and I have the code . May I ask did you have a refurb phone or a brand new device ? As I can’t make any conclusion other then the device being compromised as I don’t have psn and they obviously has access to the codes received on my number only .