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Ifitness Scam

craig-74
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Hello.  I am a Samsung user and have been scammed by Ifitness.  I never signed up to them, they have been taking £3 a week from my bill since 03/04/2017.  On 18th April I asked Vodafone to cancel this as I had no APP or agreement with Ifitness, to which they said they had done, but havent!!!  I have asked for my money back and they are refusing to refund.  I have text back STOP every month too but still being charged.  Vodafone have referred me to an O2 Forum for advice (???)  and a link which confirms its a scam linked to google play pedometer.   Does anyone know how I go about complaining and getting my money back.  I am livid with the performance of Vodafone.  I have been a Customer for over 10 years !!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

http://www.pmconnect.co.uk/contact-us.htm      Contact these and you can check if your number is registered and cancel it

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108 REPLIES 108

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

If a "service" is a scam, contacting them is pretty much pointless - and all you may be doing is giving them your (confirmed valid) email address so that they can scam you even further - and sell the address on.   Only reputable services will interact with you in any useful way, and they won't have signed you up without your knowledge in the first place.

You can block premium texts in your Vodafone account settings, although this can mess up paying for parking, if you use that facility.   I think there are separate switches for incoming and ougtoing, so the options are quite granular.

O2 confirmed its a scam linked to the Pedometer on Andriod.  I have removed all premium services on both my numbers for the time being until I can get some sort of response in relation to a full refund from either Vodafone on (18/4/17) or Ifitness from when they started taking funds.

Cancel all premium services on your number.  That is the only option Vodafone have given me, BUT make sure you keep a copy of the written CHAT script of them saying they will do it because when they dont bother then you have a case for a refund back to the date you asked for it.  Dont trust them to keep the CHAT because it 'disappears'

 

Exactly the same as above, i've been charged for 4 months now and never signed up to anything, all i get told is i have to contact Apple Services but no one will tell me why or how. 

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Please be aware that premium charges can be genuine, a straightforward scam or an inadvertent sign-up.  A responsible service will cancel immediately, but many are not.  The charges are nothing to do with Vodafone (or any other carrier) who merely passes on a charge request that uses or exploits a legitimate system.   If you rang a shop and ordered goods that then weren't delivered, your complaint would be with the shop, not with Vodafone just because you used their service to make the call.  It's the same here.  The network can't distinguish between genuine and non-genuine and iFitness does seem to be a legitimate app (it was in the Play store last time I looked).

Premium rate texts have valid uses, including paying for parking and making charitable donations.   There are two levels - incoming and outgoing.   Generally speaking, ones that you might want to use are outgoing and ones that may be scams are incoming, so make sure you have the right bar in place (which might be both, depending on what you want to do).

[Removed]

 

This is a scam and to keep telling people to be responsible for something outside their control is just plain stupid.

 

Get a grip - we know what is real, useful and worth paying for.

 

I am now typing STOP to you.

 

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines]

So, here is my version of this experience.

After several years on pay-as-you-go, Vodafone enticed me to move to them on a pay-monthly plan in July.

A couple of weeks later I receive the text in the screenshot below.

I never clicked on any adds, or entered a competition, or had any interaction with this company whatsoever (as I have been accused of), so I reported it to Vodafone instantly.

Vodafone said in their response that they would "look into it" for me, and "thanks for helping us combat spam"...

No more texts received from ifitness, so I assumed Vodafone looked into it and dealt with it.

 

So when I queried my bill, I was quite annoyed to learn that these scammers had been allowed to raid my bank account via Vodafone to the tune of £3/week.

The support personnel at Vodafone refused to do help, saying it was my fault, and there was nothing they could do about it. Curiously they had the company behind ifitness on speed dial for me, where no one answered. And, after faffing through the layers of my account myself,  worked out that it is possible to block these clowns from charging me.

 

So Vodafone, I signed a Direct Debit form entrusting you with access to my bank account, and not 2 weeks in your version of 'Security' allowed scammers to gain access to my money as well.  Your a leading technology company, so please stop with the 'There is nothing we can do' apologies, and put an end to this for all of us. 

And whilst you are at it, and in light of the text conversation below, can you own up to the negligence afforded to me and refund everything that was fraudulently charged to my account, as the only contract I have signed is between me and you.

Screenshot_20171212-095952.png

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

The problem is the method of paying for services by incoming premium text.   It's a generic thing and not limited to any particular network.   When it was set up, it was a good idea - you can (say) pay for parking by texting your location and reg no and receive a reply which pays for the stay.   It was quickly expanded to horoscopes, weather, ringtoes etc and then the scammers took over.   Initially, it was difficult to cncel things you'd signed up to, or not apparent that some things weren't one-off purchases but an ongoing subscription.   There is also some anecdotal evidence that there's a degree of slamming going on - numbers being added to a charging system without any action by the owner of the number.   There may also be malicious/prank sign-ups.

In the early days, before widespread mobile data, SMS payment made a lot of sense.  Even now, in areas of poor data coverage, it has a place, but, a bit like internet banking, security hasn't kept up.

Vodafone does have a well-granulated system of bars that you can put on your account, accessible via My Vodafone either on the web or the app and it's worth having a look at them.   Setting the appropriate one for you may hamper charitable donations or paying for parking but, if you don't do that (and parking is increasingly handled by app anyway), it's worthwhile.

As far as the network is concerned, a chargeable text  is a valid transaction which they are not in a position to police - that is, or should be, handled by the regulator.  iFitness does seem to be a reputable service - there's an app on the Play Store, though whether all charges are actually from it, I'm not sure.  It's very easy to spoof an incoming number (people have been caught out by apparently genuine texts from their bank that even appear on an existing thread).

It's an unfortunate fact of life that there are always people trying to get their hands on your money and vigilance is essential.

The Vodafone text replies you've received look as though they've come from an automated system and there may have been no human intervention or investigation.  I'd suggest contacting Customer Services to see whether they can refund at least some of the charges.


@hrym wrote:

In the early days, before widespread mobile data, SMS payment made a lot of sense.  Even now, in areas of poor data coverage, it has a place, but, a bit like internet banking, security hasn't kept up.

 

Oh, but my internet banking has kept up, in fact it's light years ahead, and more importantly: they take responsibility for it.  The last time they detected fraudulent activity on my account, they blocked it, called me up straight away, sent me a new card, and my money was reinstated.

 


@hrym wrote:

 

Vodafone does have a well-granulated system of bars that you can put on your account, accessible via My Vodafone either on the web or the app and it's worth having a look at them.   Setting the appropriate one for you may hamper charitable donations or paying for parking but, if you don't do that (and parking is increasingly handled by app anyway), it's worthwhile.

 


And I have already stated that I worked this out, after Vodafone told me there was nothing they could do to stop them. I'm pretty confident if Vodafone can stop all, then they can stop some. I'm sure I'm not the only one getting tired of the 'charity and parking' argument, as there is a big difference between pay-to-send and pay-to-receive (or not receive in my case).

 


@hrym wrote:

iFitness does seem to be a reputable service - there's an app on the Play Store, though whether all charges are actually from it, I'm not sure. 


Sorry, but that is not even close to true. Just google them and start reading. There are threads and articles everywhere, this thread has 19k in views atm. And if we are expected to think having an app on the play store is proof of legitimacy, then we've swallowed the bait.

 


@hrym wrote:

 

It's an unfortunate fact of life that there are always people trying to get their hands on your money and vigilance is essential.


Sure, blame the victim. As if this kind of problem isn't bad enough, we also have to get moralized because we didn't make a conscious decision about something we couldn't have been conscious about. No-one is pretending the world is flowers and rainbows, but an unfortunate fact of business is that when customers are paying you good money for a high tech product, they should be able to expect to be shielded from low tech scammers.

 


@hrym wrote:

 

The Vodafone text replies you've received look as though they've come from an automated system and there may have been no human intervention or investigation.


To be fair, I just contacted Vodafone with the information, via the method in which they provided. Maybe it's a monitored service, or maybe it's digital black hole they provide to make customers feel engaged with. Either way, it's not my problem that they post or preemptively chose to ignore it. If the official Vodafone want to shed light on the details, that would be interesting.

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Enter a wrong digit in a transfer and pay someone else, then watch your bank deny all responsibility.   There's no system of double checking, just as there isn't for SMS subscriptions.  This is a serious weakness in both cases.

I think you have the some/all equation the wrong way round.   If it was possible to block some, then it would be possible to block all, but the other way round doesn't necessarly apply.   However, selective blocking isn't possible as there are legitimate services which some people want and others don't.   There are also scams and it looks as though some of these may masquerade as legitimate services.   The whole thing is out of date and needs an overhaul, but a single network can't do this.

Yes, iFitness does have a Play Store app (several in fact).   What they do and how quickly they start charging you if you install them, I don't know, but they are there.   There may also, as I said, be a scam that imitates them.

The simple fact is that you do need to be careful at all times.  In this case, it's not a question of blaming the victim - I merely pointed out that there are steps you can take to protect yourself in future.   It you're the victim of a drive-by (a charge being set up without any interaction from you), all you can do it take action after the event.  But do look at the account bars as they can stop things before they happen.

I don't know the method you've used, but it does sound like a means of reporting scams.   If that's the case, I don't think it's appropriate in this case as you want someone to look at your account and maybe get a refund.   I have seen this happen in the past, but I don't know what the options and mechanisms are.