Beware of the subscription trap on your cell phone – ooe.ORF.at

In many cases, it is enough to carelessly click on an advertising banner to end up in the subscription trap. The contract only becomes effective when you explicitly commit to paying via a button.

Subscriptions without additional interest

“The less suspicious alternative is that you want to buy something from online games, for example. You realise that this might cost something. Then there is the criminal version, where there is no additional benefit at all, and it is all about money,” explains Thorsten Behrens, project manager of Watchlist Internet.

Protection against subscription traps

Experts and consumer advocates recommend setting up a third-party block. Anita Eckmayer, consumer lawyer at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, recommends: “It would be best to block third-party providers right from the start when concluding the contract. It would be desirable if this were set up by the providers as a standard.”

Mobile providers like A1 allow their customers to pay for various services, software and game subscriptions via invoice. This payment function can be completely blocked online or via the service team using the customer's password or setting a limit.

Mobile phone provider Drei says: “If customers contact us about issuing value-added service invoices, we refer them to a third-party provider, who forwards the case to the relevant vendor. He investigates the issue. Most often there are appropriate solutions.”

Good faith of mobile operators

“We have found that if you know about it right away and check your bills regularly, the operators are very welcoming and will write it off because it is often very small amounts, so it is advisable to pay the cell,” says Anita Eckmeier. To carefully check your phone bill every month and, if necessary, file a complaint against the bill right away.

This article accompanies the programme “OÖ today”, ORF2, 16 August 2024.