Optus adding data usage that we did not use

On 15th Sept I had the usual Optus sms telling me that we’d used 50% of the 23GB monthly allowance- that was fine, 2 weeks into the period.
On 21/9 at 17:37 I was advised that we’d used 85% - 19.64GB… that was a bit sooner than expected, but my wife’s computer had just spent 4 hours stuck in some Windows 10 update procedure, so I guess it was conceivable.
Next day 22/9 at 14:55 we’d exceeded 23GB. Hmm, that cant be right, we hadn’t been doing all that much online.
Less than an hour later, at 15:51, the extra GB had been used! I wont repeat what I said at the time, but I’d turned the wireless router off a bit before then. In any case, our speed is far too slow to be able to download 1GB in under an hour!

I phoned Optus and after about 10 mins on hold spoke to someone, I suspect in the Philippines, for about 5 mins, who told me I’d be transfered to someone in the correct department. More time on hold, then someone else who I had to explain it all to again, and was then informed I had to talk to a different department, but they had all gone home for the day, and I’d have to call back the next day. So much for their claim to have 24/7/365 tech help- clearly this is not true for their phone help. Maybe it is on FB or Twitter, but I dont use them.

A while later at 18:04, another 1GB used ( these are costing $10 per GB, so it is adding up pretty quickly), That entire GB had been added whilst the router was turned off, as was the data on my wife’s phone, which contributes 3GB of the shared data allowance.
We live way out of town, nearly 400m back from a quiet dirt road, and about the same distance from the nearest house, and have the connection password protected, so where is all this data usage coming from, even with our router turned off?
Yesterday another 3GB mysteriously appeared, and another half a GB overnight, the modem was off all night.
Looking at my account usage details online, which is actually working today, often it is down “due to technical difficulties, try again later”, and I see the data phone number has used 1.57GB, my wife’s phone has used 417kb, yet the total data usage is 5.46GB!
I guess I’ll have to waste some more time on hold today and try to get to the bottom of this :rage:
Only another 4 weeks to wait for the NBN… I hope!

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I had a similar situation and when I went online and checked my usage on my account I found that it was incorrect, the text message had been sent in error.
I rang Optus and complained but the $10 had already been charged too my account the person I spoke too said I had too wait till the bill issued before they would actually credit it back so when I got the bill I rang again.
Always pays too check yourself. If I think there will be a problem I take screen prints off my usage regularly, just for my own peace off mind.
Good luck hope your resolve it.

Take this further Gordon if you do not get any satisfaction from Optus . The Communications Ombudsman Etc . Although from reading your data usage you could have been " hacked " .Optus should be able to trace this . I wish you good luck in this as the Telcos seem to be a law unto themselves .

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No satisfaction yet, I tried calling Optus this afternoon, but they could not help me this time because the account is in my wife’s name, so she will have to call them when she isn’t at work tomorrow pm or Friday, and has plenty of time to wait on hold, with the crappy muzak playing.
This wasn’t an issue when I last spoke to them, and I am certain we registered my name with them to be able to deal in account issues a year or more ago.

Updated current usage: data phone number: 3.18GB, my wife’s phone has used 11.55MB, and the total data usage is 7.33GB!
Blowed if I know where the extra 4GB came from.

Gordon you look as though someone has hacked your phone . Just read this and see what happens generally . A friend of mine was in the same postion as you . Data being used by a “ghost " .She complained to Telstra and the Ombudsman and even never turned the phone of and went on a Pre Paid plan so she could control usage . One night I starred getting strange SMS’s from Sydney from her phone that had the data leak . I phoned her , she lives arround the corner from me in MELBOURNE . We logged the calls naturally and thought here’s the proof the phone was hacked . Next nite same thing but she was with me . Eventually it went to the Ombudsman and guess what … The Telco won . She had to pay $2000 . I felt like putting my Telstra modem thru the wall . Even the ombudsman was sympathetic but did not want to set a” precedent" What precedent that the innocent never get off charges that aren’t theres with Telcos. She refused to pay so Telstra issued a notice thru the Sheriffs office she would be charged . She paid Telstra back at $50 a fortnite .She made her last payment a week ago . I’m trying to get her into Choice now where she will at least have some support .I feel so sorry for her . I saw the frustration she went through.

The SIM is still in the phone, not in anyone else’s hands, so how does any hacker download data on the SIM owners account? BT is never turned on, and data is always off when not specifically being used, so how does it get hacked?

The excess data certainly is not showing up in the Optus account as being downloaded through my wife’s phone, or though the wireless router, so how is it getting there, unless by an Optus error? The data increases at a rate (1GB in an hour) that isn’t even possible here, so all of it must be happening somewhere else. There are certainly no war drivers out here within range of the router.

Years ago when we were unfortunate enough to be stuck on a 24 month contract for wireless “broadband” with Telstra, mysterious large amounts of data ocassionally appeared on the account, but when we phoned them Telstra always added extra allowance to cover it after we pointed out that it couldn’t possibly be our usage (also far too slow a connection), so it didn’t cost us anything.

There are units available out there that you can walk around with , drive etc and they will register ip addresses and also sim card codes which allow you access to them . Sim cutters are readily available online if you know where to look as are blank sims . From what you say I think it is at Optus’s end . They just seem to be taking there time to find the problem . Hang in there Gordon .

You are with Optus? Good luck.
We were with Optus for over 10 years. Then they disconnected our phone and internet. No reason. Just their negligence.
It took over 2 months to restore the service. I personally spent 7 hours on one day early on speaking to the brain dead India Call Centre who simply transferred me around the Call Centre, refused to transfer me to Australia. It took emails to the Minister’s Office and the TIO (Telecommunications Ombudsman’s Office to get Optus to even address the issue. And then they lied about a MSG (Mass Service Disruption) so that they did not have to pay the mandatory compensation under the Act.
For interest sake the TIO is AN INDUSTRY BODY and it was clear that the TIO was acting in the interests of Optus, not us, as this organisation played politics along the way.
Go with Optus? Only if you have rocks in your head. We are currently with Internode and will be going NBN + internet phone shortly. That cuts out Optus entirely. This company is not an efficient operator and treats its customers like dung and in my opinion to be avoided at all costs.

I have heard about the grabbing of IP addresses on public wifi networks, but my wife’s phone is never searching for wireless networks to connect to, as wifi is always off.
We’ll see how we go with Optus this afternoon…

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Hope all goes well mate

Good luck Gordon, looking forward to hearing how you progress.

No progress today, my wife rang Optus at 4:45pm and after a period on hold spoke to someone for a short time to explain everything again, and a minute or 2 after they put her back on hold while they “brought up the details”, they hung up.

She phoned again straight away, but was still on hold as it went past 5 oclock, so hung up, as they told me originally that the dept that I needed to talk to went home at 5pm.

Maybe we’ll get somewhere tomorrow morning!

I have a mobile data modem with Telstra and have the same problem.
I use Networx (data tracker) to keep track of my usage & Telstra’s data tracking runs about 35% faster than my usage.
I’ve tried talking/emailing Telstra but get nowhere.
The very nice Indian sounding folk assure me the problem is not at their end so my pc must be at fault.
They say they will look into it for me but inevitably I never hear back from them.
I’ve given up am waiting for NBN Satellite to come to my area.

Same as me on the waiting for NBN satellite… my wife is nearly 50 mins into the phone call with Optus as I type (on hold mostly), having had to explain everything again to a couple of people, but still no closer to sorting it out.

@browning55 Please message me the phone numbers you are using to enquire for help from Telstra . They have a 3 tier customer service set up . First tier " Turn your modem on and off etc . Second tier “I will put a support ticket in for you” Third tier is where you should be . I have a number that takes you directly to it . Always fixed my Internet issues no matter how long it took . Very easy to deal with . Just one thing .Never publish the number on an open forum like this .

@gordon Hope all goes well for you and your wife with Optus .

The phone call lasted 57minutes, the result is that we have to pay the full amount for last month, and they will refund the extra (saying it like they are doing us a big favour). The claim it wont happen again, but did acknkowledge that there is also an excess of over 4GB not used by us for this month when my wife pointed it out, but I’m not sure what is going to happen if we use more than 19GB (combined phone + wireless BB data, less the extra 4GB) and exceed the 23GB total. Probably more hours on hold doing it all again!

Slowly , slowly , slowly it goes Gordon . At least your getting somewhere now .Often persistence is all we have in these matters . I truly wish I had the same connections with Optus that I have with Telstra then I could help you more .

Indeed it is slow, slow, slow, Vax. One really annoying thing is the layers of menus you have to go through before you actually speak to someone, but I really dont think it makes any difference, you still seem to end up speaking to someone with a list of questions and answers to read from. “Technical help” appears to have no meaning at Optus!

What adds insult to injury here is that Optus have recently changed their home broadband plans to all have unlimited data. If you weren’t a month away from having the NBN hooked up (lucky duck) I’d recommend asking Optus to update your plan.

It’s really worth looking at your home and phone internet plan every 12 months: data plans go out of date that fast you can wind up with an obsolete product by the time the contract term expires.

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