According to Stiftung Warentest, at least 41,000 customers of the mobile service providers Mobilcom-Debitel, Vodafone and Klarmobil received incorrect or overpaid invoices. As reported by the magazine "Finanztest" on Monday, users have been charged third-party services that had not ordered them. These are, for example, paid videos and other unspecified services.
According to the report, Vodafone customers were only reimbursed for overpayments when "financial test" started. Clients of Klarmobil and Mobilcom-Debitel are to receive credits, as a speaker of the two companies "Finanztest" said.
For the alleged services were accordingly accounted for in the name of the service provider Infin. What the customers are supposed to have ordered was not clear from the bills, as reported by "Finanztest". When cell phone customers complained to Infin because they had not bought or subscribed to their cell phones, they received written information that Infin was "wrongly" on the bill. The company had neither "provided" nor "calculated" the "services". Customers should still pay, to another provider.
Questionable customer acquisition
Mobile phone companies can use the mobile bill to charge for third-party services such as rental videos and games, explains Stiftung Warentest. However, serious providers demanded an explicit confirmation of the order, for example by clicking on a button with the words "order to pay".
Often, however, customers are simply postponed a purchase or subscription after they have come in contact with the third party - for example, by clicking on an advertising banner. Anyone who gets an invoice for something like that should not pay, advised Stiftung Warentest.
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"Finanztest" had reported in its September issue about Abofallen on a large scale. Since then, more and more deceived customers are reporting. More than 1300 complaints about third-party providers and billing services such as Richberg Media, Pink Mobile, Brandii Media, Mocopay or Texted have already been received.
"Finanztest" advises affected mobile customers to claim amounts wrongly invoiced in writing to the provider and to reclaim the illegally debited money. In addition, they should complain to the Federal Network Agency and dubious third party providers online for fraud in the police show.
