to be absolutely fuming at these unauthorised charges on my mobile account

[Mam23]

and to ask if anyone else has had any experience with this?

A few weeks ago I got an SMS out of the blue on my mobile thanking me for subscribing to KKO Mobile for £4.50 per week. I ignored it for a couple of hours, then got a second SMS 'reminding' me I was subscribed for £4.50 per week so I Googled it and found it seems to be some sort of scam where this company siphons money out of your mobile phone account (how can they even do that??). I texted back STOP and got another SMS telling me my subscription was terminated. Problem solved, I thought - NO.

Checked on my phone bill balance this evening and it is DOUBLE. These thieving bastards have been taking £4.50 out of my account every week despite me 1, never subscribing in the first place and 2, terminating the subscription and getting a confirmation from them that it was terminated.

I've submitted a complaint to KKO Mobile and to the regulator of premium phone services (PhonePay Plus). I tried to contact Orange who are my phone provider but their offices are closed, I can't get into my online account for some reason and there doesn't seem to be a single link for an email address to Orange customer services.

Any advice on what I can do - or anyone got the email address for the CEO of Orange???

Oh, and AIBU, or should I just suck it up as part of the cost of using modern technology?

You most certainly do not suck it up. Are you sure you didn't download or vote for anything even just once? Sometimes you end up being subscribed to stuff.

I think the scam starts when you text them to stay STOP, not sure how to stop it though, sorry. My husband told me always to delete any messages like that.

Yes, I'm afraid when you texted them you confirmed that the number was live, which probably set the scam off. But don't suck it up, keep after Orange.

Ah, I'm having similar but with '3' network & a different company name - some sex website that I know we haven't subscribed to ( don't have phone handy to check). I ignored it thinking it was a scam waiting for a reply but yes, £4.50 per week has been taken. Dp has looked into it for me this week and has texted the stop message & had confirmation. I'm guessing we may also find that means nothing.....

I thought replying STOP might activate it which was why I didn't reply to the first one, but when I got the second one a few hours later and looked it up on Google, people seemed to be saying you had to text STOP to terminate it. And sure enough, I got a termination confirmation SMS.

I haven't subscribed to or clicked on anything and the only think I have voted on was the Strictly Final, which was well after it all kicked off. And even if I had, texting stop and having a termination SMS should've stopped it surely.

I'm just so that they can take money out of my bank account via Orange. I'm going to phone Orange in the morning but reading through messages on MSE website, it seems like the mobile providers just shrug their shoulders and say 'nothing to do with us'.

Orange and there poor service are the reason that I went back (and stayed) on PAYG

I have been trying to reach Orange customer service for weeks via telephone, but once I get through the menu options it hangs up on me. I tried emailing etc no luck. Only had response from @EE on twitter, try them.

I had exactly (almost) the same thing happen to me! I rang 02 to ask why my bill was so high...they told me that EVERYTIME this company sent ME a txt (even though I ignored) it cost ME £1.50...02 gave me the direct line number to this company I gave them quite a large piece of my mind and they reimbursed me £65!!!! that it had cost me!!! I was advised by 02 to txt back 'stop' and now I've heard nothing more x

www.phonepayplus.org.uk/

This might be of some help. It's the mobile version of Ofcom.

ThabksCaitli

Eek sosorry pressed send early!

Thanks Caitlin, I've already lodged a complaint with phone play plus.

I'm now even more incensed having spoke to Orange so-called customer services. They told me they can do nothing at all for me, they won't stop the charges going out, they won't help to contact the company on my behalf to ensure the subscription is cancelled and they refused to let me speak to anyone more senior. I asked for their customer complaints department and they apparently haven't got one . Clearly they think their company is beyond reproach. They essentially told me that if the company won't stop charging me then the only way I can stop the problem is to cancel my contract with Orange which will cost me £250!

I can see their point that it isn't actually them charging me, but for a customer services agent to suggest that the only way they can offer any help is for me to leave the company is plainly ridiculous!

Oh and he kept saying they couldn't stop the charge because how did they know I'd cancelled the subscription. Ummm, I've told you about 20 time now...

He's supposedly texting me an email address that for another part of customer services, but surprise, surprise, 40 minutes later that text hasn't come through.

I'm tempted to join twitter to try and get somewhere with this. Do you suppose the CEO of the company is on twitter, because the employees on the ground don't seem to care a bit?

I think the twitter things is a good idea. I once had an issue with a train company that left a colleague and I stranded at a train station 15 miles from home. The terminated the emergency buses at the station and it was freezing cold and snowing.

I had to phone my husband to collect us and although I knew my company would cover the fuel cost I was far from happy and had a twitter rant. I got a quick reponse. Nobody wants negative publicity on such powerful social media.

That's encouraging Annie. I'm downloading the app now.

Amusingly, I've just been texted a customer feedback survey by Orange. Don't think they'll score well on this somehow!

I had this. I complained to the company and received a cheque in the post about a week later.

the MSE website has the details:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/stop-spam-texts#premium

under the premium rate spam bit at the bottom of the page.

Thabk you liquidstate. It looks like I did all the steps suggested in the MSE article, including making a complaint to the company last night and reporting a complaint to the regulator so maybe I'll be lucky enough to get my money back too.

I had something similar a few years back, I was on payg with virgin at the time and couldn't understand why these texts had suddenly started and my credit would be gone within an hour of topping up

Virgin were actually quite helpful but they couldn't get my money back as apparently it was completely legal they gave me a number to call to get myself taken off the spammer's list and the texts stopped.

Some information on here and if we all like, share and support this we can hopefully fight together.

www.facebook.com/pages/KKO-Mobile-MYDoo-RIP-OFF/1401088650150265

I've had similar, I'm with O2 and kept receiving texts that were being charged to my bill. I contacted phonepayplus and they gave me the details of who it was and told me they were under investigation. I had to show phonepayplus screen shots of my bill. That particular company are still part of a big investigation. I emailed them demanding a refund and had it refunded that same day. I would say definitely report the texts to phonepayplus.

Sorry about the rambling reply - I'm typing on a phone.

Ask the phone company to block third-party charges on your phone bill.

You can report such unauthorised transactions on:

www.vcharges.com/

I got caught out similarly with a ring tone thingy. It wasn't as expensive as that but I had been unwittingly paying for it for a couple of months before noticing. I didn't even realise I had signed up to it, I stopped it as soon as I realised.