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Over-charged might be scammed?

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi Public Mobile Community,

 

I am posting this to raise an awareness, in case you're not informed. This is the second time that public mobile have charged me over than my monthly plan. 

 

December 2020- I was just charge $450 instead of $40 for no reason. The transaction have said that I purchased a data which I was not even informed. (This case was resolved)

January 2021- I am being charge an amount of $7,336 instead of $25 for no 'transaction reason'.

 

I have filled a complain privately to the moderators to take an action, and yesterday I have received a mobile message from person that she claimed she work at public mobile and owned a Huawei spy network and have been spying my iphone (Absurd if I must say)

Since I received that message I have follow up my request upon reversing the amount that have been wrongfully charge to me.

 

Please be ware of this uncertainty and report it right away.

 

Thank you Public Community!

60 REPLIES 60


@gioangelino wrote:

@All 

 

The amount that was charged upon my account has been disputed. However it will take some amount of time before it take in effect in my credit card. 

 


Wonder if you get your money back yet.. (it's not a small amount).. Was it a fault on PM side or CC?  If PM takes responsibility and willing to reverse the  charge, it should be pretty quick.. like 2-7days you should get the money back.. 

 

 


@junjunc wrote:

I would suggest you to remove the automatic payment first and talk to your bank to find out the source of the payment and where it went. The amount stated in your description looks a LOT. Thus, it must be suspicious. Try to change your username and passwords as well. 


  1. The source of the payment was Public Mobile's Self-Serve either online or 1-855-4-PUBLIC.
  2. It went to the OP's Public Mobile account balance.
  3. The OP already changed their password (for online self-serve) and PIN (for 1-855-4-PUBLIC self-serve)
  4. OP also removed credit card and is looking into an alternative credit card with lower limits and more controls to associate with the account to still benefit from the autopay reward.

junjunc
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I would suggest you to remove the automatic payment first and talk to your bank to find out the source of the payment and where it went. The amount stated in your description looks a LOT. Thus, it must be suspicious. Try to change your username and passwords as well. 

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thank you so much for explaining it to me thoroughly! I will check and see which method best works for me! 🙂

@gioangelino 

Here's a couple of options for you to register a card for the autopay reward that are low risk if indeed your card/account gets compromised yet again.

 

Koho card - Koho is a virtual Canadian bank backed by Peoples Trust so covered by the CDIC. It issues visa/debit cards with a min. 0.5% cashback no fee card. Very easy to sign up and apply for as it takes about 5 min. (choose "savings") and your card will arrive in 5 to 10 business days.

 

Pm is a retail partner with koho so all payments to pm recieve an additional 2% cashback. (2%+0.5%=2.5%+ 1% for each referral**) Koho also has a high interest savings account, an easily lockable card and you can choose to transfer as little or as much (up to max $3000 i think) onto your card. (I will private message you a list of members who also have a koho card that you can ask for their referral code.)

 

If you use it just for pm you could leave $15 on your card keep it unlocked to make sure if you ever forget to pay ahead of time there are enough funds on the card for autopay so your plan renews and you don't lose service. Just be in the habit of when you get the payment reminder text from pm to add $15 to your koho card then log into your self serve account and make a manual top up from your koho card to your account balance. Or just let autopay do its thing....

 

** koho referrals : If you use a referral code when you sign up you recieve an additional 1% cashback for 90 days (pm = 3.5%) or if you refer someone you will also recieve an extra 1% cashback up to a max 10 referrals. In theory you could get up to 13.5% casbback for yout first 90 days.

 

Kelloggs visa gift card -  This is a $5 promotional visa gift card from Kelloggs issued by prepaid digital solutions and will have a name (on the card) and address associated to the card along with an expiry date and a CVC/CVV. This card is also backed by the Peoples Trust.

 

The latest kelloggs visa gift card promotion starts February 18th,  2021 and runs til June 25th, 2021. Simply purchase 2 selected family size kelloggs cereal on the same reciept and register and upload the reciept to kelloggs to recieve your $5 visa gift card. (Combine coupons, a sale, price matching and pm optimum points you can get the cereal for free during this promotion.)

 

You can leave this card on file with pm as your autopay $2 reward card only ( after loading $4 - $4.50 before tax onto your account from the $5 balance.) After expiry it can remain on file so long as its not used or removed. Vouchers would have to used to pay for your service.

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thank you for that tip! I think it will really ease my soul if I'd just do it through visa gift card, I'd still get to keep the rewards.

@gioangelino If you want to keep the autopay reward, add a visa gift card to your account with almost no balance. A lot of the regulars, myself included, on here pay ahead of time either vouchers, one time payments etc, not relying on the credit card. You still get the autopay reward even if it isn't used. If it tried to happen again, the gift card with almost zero balance would fail and save you this grief.

 

Glad it worked out for you.

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@All 

 

Thank you for all of your support and kind words, all of it were appreciated! Fortunately, PM Moderators have already talked to me yesterday and we have settled this problem. The amount that was charged upon my account has been disputed. However it will take some amount of time before it take in effect in my credit card. 

 

I have used all of your advice, I have changed my pin and remove my credit card for auto-payment and from now on- I'd be doing manual top up. (I'd be glad if you could give me more tips to prevent this matter, this happened twice already with me having auto-top payment.)

 

It was indeed a very unsettling experience but the community provided me comfort. Thank you all for your support!

 

@Nezgar 

I think the account and credit card were compromised thru 1 855 4PUBLIC. The self serve account locks out additional payments after two successful payments for at least one hour before another payment can be made.

 

Edit: @RosieR  @gioangelino 

Or place a temporary hold on your card.  Removing it temporarily when you need to charge your card then put on hold again.


@Nezgar wrote:

Thanks @darlicious for confirming that a PIN is now required... but then in the OP's case, it would possibly mean the perpetrator knows their PIN or self-serve password. Removing the associated credit card from the account would prevent any further transactions...


HI @gioangelino if your PIN code is compromised, you must be using the same code for all your accounts.  I would suggest you change your PIN code to a unique one for your Public Mobile account, instead of removing your registered credit card, which you will miss out on autopay credit.  Unless of course you have another credit card to replace the one already registered.

 

To update or remove credit card - 

Log in your self serve account

Click Payment tab

Click Manage my credit card

RosieR_0-1607299096857.png

 

Best wishes and Happy New Year

 

RosieR

 

Thanks @darlicious for confirming that a PIN is now required... but then in the OP's case, it would possibly mean the perpetrator knows their PIN or self-serve password. Removing the associated credit card from the account would prevent any further transactions...

@Nezgar 

They changed this a couple of months ago. You are now prompted for your pin# when you want to pay with your card.

PIN is not required for a topup from a registered credit card via 1-855-4PUBLIC

 

Remove your CC from your account to prevent this for now.

 

I believe I wrote about this in the past -- that anyone can do this to a PM subscriber by only knowing their phone number. I believe this is still the case-intended to allow people to reinstate their accounts with minimal authentication friction.

 

The only good news is the perpetrator doesn't actually have access to your account or credit card information or that ridiculous account balance...  but thats way too much and PM really needs to add a PIN requirement for topup via 1-855-4PUBLIC ...

 

And indeed $150 is the max per transaction. The max balance should not have been allowed to go higher than a couple hundred dollars...

@esjliv 

Yes thats what i was thinking about what it is the max amount of a top up ( only thru 611 or self serve as well i think). But I also thought there was a maximum $1500 to be added externally to an account.

 

@gioangelino 

This was always a manual top up vs an autopay glitch. Your pin# may very well be compromised. Tangerine/Scotiabank has some explaining to do as this is a major failure of their fraud detection system and I would have very little faith going forward with them. Have you been talking to their fraud department ?

 

The moderators have been responding around the 48 hour mark.... hopefully that happens soon for you.

Anonymous
Not applicable

@esjliv wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

 @ShawnC13 : Interesting theory. I looked again and there was just the one 100. The couple few 20's. And then that outrageous crap load o' 150's. Why 150?

 

The OP does keep coming back to some mysterious communication they got though. Surely (don't call me Shirley)  there's a scam in here somewhere.

 

Agreed. I use Koho for all my phone contactless purchasing. I only use my big time cc's for bigger purchases.


@Anonymous ,

$150 happens to be the highest number you can topup by calling 611 or 1-855-478-2542 (1-855-4PUBLIC) .


Oh! Good one. Hmm...the plot thickens. Now I'm back to thinking vindictive ex 🙂


@Anonymous wrote:

 @ShawnC13 : Interesting theory. I looked again and there was just the one 100. The couple few 20's. And then that outrageous crap load o' 150's. Why 150?

 

The OP does keep coming back to some mysterious communication they got though. Surely (don't call me Shirley)  there's a scam in here somewhere.

 

Agreed. I use Koho for all my phone contactless purchasing. I only use my big time cc's for bigger purchases.


@Anonymous ,

$150 happens to be the highest number you can topup by calling 611 or 1-855-478-2542 (1-855-4PUBLIC) .

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Yeah its shows on my cc and what is the gato joke? hahaha 

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

You're right it should be shown automatic top up! I have viewed my previous 2 month transactions.

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @esjliv : Yes that's correct. It's why I made the gato joke.

 

 @gioangelino : So you see all these charges over on your cc right? So that might preclude the theory mentioned earlier.

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Just an update:

 

I have contacted the credit card company one again and demanded an explanation why they did not block my creditcard when the duplicates transaction happened. Honestly, I am frustrated that PM hasn't response immediately, with this huge money transaction involved. It has been more than 48 hours. CC company indicated that I need to get a hold of PM before proceeding on refunding the amount. 

 

It is very frustrating and unsettling that this happened but I'm still cool to be fair, for the reason, that this is fraud and I could rest assured that I'm not liable for this amount.

 

 


@gioangelino wrote:

It is automatic payment every month.


Shouldn't the automatic (autopay) payment wording be this:

"Automatic Top-Up/Réapprovisionnements auto."

or am i mistaken?

 

The entries you are showing look like manual top ups.

Please someone confirm or deny this?

Anonymous
Not applicable

 @ShawnC13 : Interesting theory. I looked again and there was just the one 100. The couple few 20's. And then that outrageous crap load o' 150's. Why 150?

 

The OP does keep coming back to some mysterious communication they got though. Surely (don't call me Shirley)  there's a scam in here somewhere.

 

Agreed. I use Koho for all my phone contactless purchasing. I only use my big time cc's for bigger purchases.

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Honestly, I don't normally use this credit card just for public mobile specifically. It is tangerine credit card, owned by Scotiabank.


@darlicious wrote:

@gioangelino 

I noticed you topped up your account with $20 on Jan 9th to cover your upcoming renewal? After that the $150 top ups started. How and where did you do your top up? Thru 611? Thru self serve at home on your pc? laptop? phone? Or outside of your home on free wifi?


Good question @darlicious. I am hoping this is a PM system glitch and @gioangelino gets fixed right away.

 

@gioangelino does anyone know your 4 digit account PIN?

You may or may not know that calling 1-855-478-2542 (1-855-4PUBLIC) is just like calling 611 from your own device, if someone knows your PIN.

I do not want to give anybody any ideas, but if you think your PIN is compromised in any way get it changed with the moderators ASAP.

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

It is automatic payment every month.

whyveeare
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I'm curious @gioangelino , what credit card is this if you don't mind me asking?  I'd like to avoid a CC company that can't prevent something obvious like this.

@Anonymous, do you think the first top-up was to see if the card worked, and then they continued with them.  If they have access to the account they could then contact PM looking for a refund and say something like they canceled that card and can they credit this card or some other method?  Very Strange.  I have a low limit card for all transactions online.

 


I am happy to help, but I am not a Customer Support Agent please do not include any personal info in a message to me. Click HERE to create a trouble ticket through SIMon the Chatbot *

dude65
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Thats absolutely crazy @gioangelino. The CC company should of  put a lock on the card after the 3rd transaction in a short time frame until they talked with the owner of the CC. Get this resolved and either get them to send you a new CC or better yet get rid of it and get another CC from a different company

@gioangelino 

I noticed you topped up your account with $20 on Jan 9th to cover your upcoming renewal? After that the $150 top ups started. How and where did you do your top up? Thru 611? Thru self serve at home on your pc? laptop? phone? Or outside of your home on free wifi?

gioangelino
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I will keep you all updated with this case of mine! 

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