POTENTIAL FRAUD: Facilitated by photobucket.com - Charges to mobile account from "Payforit"

SquireJapan

Here's an FYI for everyone.

I've noticed on occasion there are nasty popups from photobucket.com when checking links pasted on www.thefretboard.co.uk (usually pictures of what people are selling etc etc.).

There seem to be phases of it, and it's been fine for a few months now, but I noticed them back yesterday and today.

The "nasty" pop-ups (I say that because they're re-directing me without my consent and inhibit my "back" button) seem to be links from the banners on photobucket.com. I seem to either get sent to (don't click/visit on these):

 - spaces.slimspots.com 

 - appupdate.co-mob.biz

 - pfi.ewank.com

 - delivery.brokerbabe.com

Up until now I've put this down to experience, but this morning (after clicking on a link to a picture of someone's 335), I was redirected to "ewank.com". Hit the back button a few times in quick succession and was taken back to www.thefretboard.co.uk.

All fairly usual so far.

A short while after I got a text on my mobile saying:

"FreeMsg: You've paid £6.00 for 1 items from Mobjizz (visited at <<removed by me>>). HELP? 03330030598, Mobjizz@payforit-esc.com or view again at htt_://pfi.ewank.com/<<removed by me again>>.

Now looking into it, "Payforit" seems to be a "legitimate" company with relationships with the big providers in the UK, including Vodafone (my provider: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions/payforit/). Now I know I've not clicked to buy anything from that site, all can assume is that "they" (not sure who at this point) have exploited something meaning they get to bill without my approval.

This is concerning on a number of levels, for starters:

 - Vodafone and the other mobile providers (three, EE, O2 etc) have a relationship with Payforit which seems to mean that by default I can be billed without my consent.

 - The message I received was flagged as from "Payforit", which would indicate that my mobile number has been provided to a third party without my knowledge.

After quickly researching it, I then called Vodafone customer services to register a complaint. The lady on the phone didn't know anything about "Payforit" but is supposedly going to get back to me (it's boxing day, so fair enough that I might not get someone who knows the ins-and-outs of everything Vodafone).

From a little more research, it seems that this isn't uncommon - and it seems messy and unclear as to what action we can take.

I am going to go at this in a major way - I'll keep this thread updated, plus if anyone else wants to help out, please let me know. I have a fair amount of familiarity with Data Protection and the like, so I'm fairly confident I'm going to get this sorted out; not just for me, but to make sure this doesn't happen again.

That's it for now ...

TTony

I'm presuming that you've got up to date virus / malware / etc protection on whatever device you're using?

UnclePsychosis

Seems rather worrying. Once or twice I've met that photobucket redirect thing on here (to that slimspots website) but always assumed I'd just managed to click on an ad banner by mistake. Maybe not  

SquireJapan

TTony said:

I'm presuming that you've got up to date virus / malware / etc protection on whatever device you're using?

Good question - clean phone (factory default with all updates), running only "legitimate" software; i.e. the stuff from the big vendors I'd trust. It's a phone I use for work, hence it literally only has productivity apps etc. (so google, microsoft etc).

AV/anti-malware wise, I'm using "AVAST". This seems to be the one that's rated; although I don't know enough about android/mobile AV to really say.

It's probably worth pointing out that I don't browse/search for such things on that phone ... it's a work phone after all and I don't want to risk anything.

TTony

@SquireJapan - Can you PM me a link to the pic that you clicked on - I'll see if I have similar problems.

Deijavoo

I had a similar although not exactly the same issue a few months ago with no idea where it came from.

HAL9000

Also had this yesterday when clicking on a photobucket link via Thefretboard. Took me to a porn site. As far as I know I backed out successfully and haven't been charged. Still a worry though.

This on a Motorola Moto G4.

iseverynamegone

Yup I had seething similar this week clicking on a photo link in here taking me to an XXX linky. Not happened before. Using ip5.

redrighthand

Worrying indeed. Personally I find the photobucket site absolutely awful from a mobile - here's another reason for the forum to recommend using some other photo site e.g. Flickr.

Voda should not have made the payforit service available without your consent, SquierJapan. They should be making it right. I'd escalate through customer services, go to their legal team if you aren't getting anywhere, and you might want to mention Ofcom, the Information Commissioner, and Watchdog.

Antique_Guitars

I accidently signed up to some online game text thing on my phone a few weeks ago when my phone wasn't locked and in my pocket. £4.50 down the drain very annoying, first time it has ever happened though, can't remeber what website I was on though when it happened, it could have been here but not sure.

xmrchi

Me too, had it today and Monday, I downloaded avg and its found nothing, I have also checked my online bill and have not been charged anything additional, I have also reinstalled chrome (which I would recommend all to do) You cannot get it completely off your phone but make sure you clear your cache and restore to factory etc.
It has only happened when clinking external links, and looks like someone has exploited photobucket.com

Since clearing caches and restoring to factory chrome, it. Seems to be fine.

Sambostar

 Mobile Jizz...Lol.

mellowsun

Might not be anything to do with your provider. The dodgy site might have harvested your phone number via other means (browser security hole, cookies etc)

Gassage

All very worrying and I'm disgusted by all this.... Where's the URL for Ewank again?

Flink_Poyd

I had the photobucket porn redirect since I joined, thought it was just a forum perk

TinLip

I'm using this in my defence with Mrs Lip.

SquireJapan

It's all a bit messy ... I wonder if they get away with it thanks to people being prudish. They made a mistake crossing me. No embarrassment talking about such things here!

I've started the ball rolling with Vodafone to get all the logs etc. I'm going after this in a big way. From more research it looks like they've been doing this a long time.

The underhand sneakyness is the bit that gets me the most.

oddball

Looks like Vodafone own 25% of the bastard http://www.payforit.org/contact/

DulcetJones

As to how these scuzzies get phone numbers, several years ago I had an "unlisted" number on a landline phone and I started getting telemarketers calling me.  They wouldn't tell me where they got my number and I called the phone company to complain.  The phone company told me that because of the high number of "unlisted" phone numbers the telemarketing companies were now giving their employees a number to start at, and then numerically calling as many as they can that day, so say Joe was given 533-1111, he would then dial that, then dial 533-1112, then 533-1113 etc.....that way they got everybody.  I read once that they actually have autodialers now that they can program to do this.  So they don't have your number but one of them will hit it at some point.  So you see, it is possible to be genius and scuzzie all at once.

Nunogilberto

I've noticed this recently, but I tend to just cancel the new window on my phone.

thisisguitar

@Gassage - It's most disappointing

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01446/eubank_1446954c.jpg