Someone used my email to get a free week of NOWTV?

[Anonymous User]

Someone used my email to get themselves a free week of NOWTV but now I keep getting emails about how “my NOW TV Month Pass didnt go through”, I managed to change the password to access the account but it won’t let me delete the pass until the payment issue is resolved which I obviously can’t do because I wasn’t the one using the account. I would honestly just like to delete the account entirely but have no idea what to do since it won’t let me without the payment being resolved. Any help would be great, thank you!

[RoyB]

Firstly, you need to change your email password, and possibly the password on your laptop or other device, if you think this might have been physically accessed to commit this fraud.

More worrying, perhaps, is that bank or card details must have been given, even to start the free week of NowTV, so your banking and/or your credit and debit cards may be compromised also.

In which case, a few nag emails from NowTV are the least of your worries; you need to look at you accounts online for all these things to see what, if anything, has gone through that you don’t recognise, and cancel the card(s) and/or change your banking password(s) likewise.

Or perhaps they just used your email with someone else’s banking details.

I suggest you contact NowTV to determine exactly what payment details were given; as this is a fraud matter, email would normally be best, but whoever has done this is probably reading your email, so use Live Chat so as not to alert them:-

Get in Touch (all the options, and the best place to start):-

https://help.nowtv.com/gb/get-in-touch/

Live Chat and Send Us a Message:-

https://help.nowtv.com/contact-us/managing-my-devices

On Live Chat, keep your answers short, sweet and prompt, or it will time out on you.

If the person you are talking to doesn’t seem able to understand your issue, ask to be escalated to the next level of help.

I remain slightly puzzled though, as to how they were able to get the initial financial authorisation, and yet this didn’t continue beyond the first week.

[ukbobboy]

@RoyB  @Anonymous User 

Hi Roy

You know, I agree with most of your advice, especially, "I remain slightly puzzled though, as to how they were able to get the initial financial authorisation..." 

Therefore, I would advise Paisley to immediately get onto his/her bank and secure the bank account, otherwise it could be left open for more fraudulent activity.

The next thing that jumped out at me was, "...contact NowTV to determine exactly what payment details were given...". If the Now TV account is not in Paisley's name then there is no way they are going to pass on any such information to a third party, in this case Paisley, because it is prohibited by the Data Protection Act.

So I believe that the best way to tackle this problem is by first closing down any fraudulently obtained details by talking to the bank.  And then, of course, Paisley should change and update his/her email address.

UK Bob

[Anonymous User]

@RoyB @ukbobboy 

I checked the payment details section and there is a card there but, based on the last four digits and the expiry date, it is not a card associated with me. An entertainment pass payment did go out and was accepted this morning so I am unsure if they used my email to get the free week and then forgot to cancel or what but I have now contacted support for further advice on how to proceed. I have also changed the passwords of this account and my email account so whoever it is should have no further access than they previously did.

Thank you both for your help, it is greatly appreciated!

[starman73]

 there is a card there but, based on the last four digits and the expiry date, it is not a card associated with me. 

If anyone would like to put their card on my account, they are welcome 🙂

Out of interest have you searched your eMails for receipts?  They are sent from 

NOREPLY(AT)mppglobal.com

Might give you some idea of when it was set up.

[RoyB]

I’ve been thinking about this, and there are a couple of details that don’t quite ring true.

But let’s say someone tried to open an account under one of my email addresses, not one that I use for NowTV - what then? They wouldn’t need physical or internet access to my email account, or to know my email password, to do that.

But the response checking the email address would come to me; so they would need access to my email account at that point, to respond and then to delete the email before I saw it.

And then they’d have to give some card details on the account - maybe mine likewise stolen, maybe not. 

But @Anonymous User could claw the account back, because even if he doesn’t know the password, he can apply for a new one, with email confirmation, change the password and then get access.

After which, though, he can for himself look at all the details of the account; address, payment, etc. etc., without having to go through NowTV.

As he has done, as above, and it’s not his card; and so, presumably, not his address.

But whatever card was used, it’s now gone, or been stopped, or whatever, and PaisleyPark is getting the chases because it is his email address, but his bank account doesn’t seem to have been affected.

Hmmm - so let’s assume for a moment that it was an innocent mistake - like the people in Australia with {my email address}@hotmail.com.au whose UK suppliers keep forgetting to put the .au, and so email me instead - and someone signing up gave the wrong email address, PaisleyPark’s instead of their own - could that make it all the way to being a live account without confirmation of the email address?

Or could PaisleyPark have got the confirmation, replied “Yes that’s me” without really thinking about it, and thus let the account get created?

Either process without his email actually being compromised?

[starman73]

You can use any email address you like as long as no one else has used it.  There is no verification email sent to prove it is you.  If someone used my email of starman73(AT)gmail.com, I could say I forgot password and get it reset and I would benefit from them setting it up for me and they would be unable to cancel it.

PS That ain't my email 🙂

[RoyB]

@starman73 said

‘You can use any email address you like as long as no one else has used it.’

Oh that’s catastrophically bad (except for @Anonymous User of course, who probably hasn’t been breached after all).

NowTV really ought to be validating email addresses with a Confirm message before an account can be set up, or an email address changed, for the protection of the would-be account creator or address changer, the owner of any wrong email address used, and perhaps even NowTV itself.