These small mobile purchases that drive up bills

The service is called Internet+. Potentially, all holders of a mobile phone or an Internet box are customers, without knowing it. It allows purchases or subscriptions to subscriptions made online to appear directly on the invoices of telecom operators. For example, clicking on play more of a video can sometimes trigger a purchase. Some banners included in online games are actually shopping pages that don't say their name. This service may be accompanied by a “Code of Ethics”, the excesses are multiple, as highlighted by France Info on Wednesday, citing a consumer stunned to receive a mobile bill of 288 euros.

Theoretically, content publishers are supposed to notify mobile users that they are in the process of subscribing to a service, with the opening of at least two or three confirmation pages, in particular one which refers to the site of the operator. The French Association of Mobile Multimedia (AFMM) ensures compliance with the charter, while recognizing that there are "unscrupulous publishers" who do without these steps. The fraud is not quantified, any more than the amounts involved or the number of sites whose behavior is questionable. These are generally merchants offering subscription services, which can go up to 30 euros per month. Similarly, one-time purchases on mobile with Internet + are capped at 30 euros.

Purchase forms are most often hidden in innocuous pages, such as content on which you have to click to find out more and which trigger, in addition to reading, an unsolicited subscription. Double-clicking on an advertising page to close it can also trigger a purchase: in this case, the first click closes the ad, but the second corresponds to a purchase that the hurried mobile user makes without even noticing!

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— Infinity Fri Dec 30 06:44:31 +0000 2016

Remedies for the consumer

Fraudsters are very imaginative. The aggrieved consumer's first weapon is to carefully read his mobile bills to look for abnormal billings, then report them to his operator and to the AFMM, whose action may go as far as cutting off the service in question. Last year, 122 sites were notified by the AFMM. A quarter of them have been suspended. A marked improvement over 2013.

On the other hand, for the consumer, reimbursement is not always easy to obtain, contrary to what happens for a disputed online payment by bank card. Prevention is still the surest way to avoid setbacks. The infoconso-multimedia.com site specifies the procedure for blocking Internet+ services and therefore avoiding unpleasant surprises. For its part, Bouygues Telecom has chosen to send a confirmation SMS to its subscribers, so that they can confirm or deny their online purchase.

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