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 ...
Comments
This on a Motorola Moto G4.
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.
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.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
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.
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay