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Having never used Android before, I bought my first Android device last month (Xperia Play) and installed it on my HP TouchPad. Of course, I had never used the Android Market before either, so when I made a test purchase from the Android Market I was surprised to see it go through without ever asking me for payment details. I got an email receipt to my Google account saying that I could get a refund in a certain amount of time, but I still had no idea what card or account it had been charged too. Eventually, I found that $5 had been deducted from my Chase checking account, presumably from my debit card. That's strange because I have not used Google Check Out or anything Google-related since the last time my check card was replaced, so I can't imagine how they got the payment details. It's on my twin brother's family plan, so it was not charged through the cellular provider either. To make matters worse, I no longer used that account and it caused an overdraft (corrected)
Now, I checked every account and settings screen I could find in the Android Market app but I could find nothing about payments or payment methods. I logged in to market.android.com on my PC and similarly could find nothing. I checked their help and FAQ questions: Nothing. I searched here: Page after page of irrelevant results. ARGH!
I'm ready to make more app purchases (Titanium Backup Pro, PdaNet, etc) but I only have enough in that account to cover the bills that I pay from it and I can't allow Google to withdraw on that bank account again. How can I switch payment methods so that it will not automatically bill the wrong account AGAIN?
Edit: "ARGH!" again. I found a thread about billing to your AT&T account being added and there was a screenshot distinctly showing AT&T billing as a drop-down in some kind of checkout page in the Market app. Thinking I must have somehow missed it, I installed Titanium Backup and then chose to purchase the key. Once again there was NO checkout and it just went ahead and purchased without ever giving the option to provide a funding source. How on Earth did they ever get my payment details and how to I manage them?!
I immediately canceled/refunded the order.
CZroe said:
Having never used Android before, I bought my first Android device last month (Xperia Play) and installed it on my HP TouchPad. Of course, I had never used the Android Market before either, so when I made a test purchase from the Android Market I was surprised to see it go through without ever asking me for payment details. I got an email receipt to my Google account saying that I could get a refund in a certain amount of time, but I still had no idea what card or account it had been charged too. Eventually, I found that $5 had been deducted from my Chase checking account, presumably from my debit card. That's strange because I have not used Google Check Out or anything Google-related since the last time my check card was replaced, so I can't imagine how they got the payment details. It's on my twin brother's family plan, so it was not charged through the cellular provider either. To make matters worse, I no longer used that account and it caused an overdraft (corrected)
Now, I checked every account and settings screen I could find in the Android Market app but I could find nothing about payments or payment methods. I logged in to market.android.com on my PC and similarly could find nothing. I checked their help and FAQ questions: Nothing. I searched here: Page after page of irrelevant results. ARGH!
I'm ready to make more app purchases (Titanium Backup Pro, PdaNet, etc) but I only have enough in that account to cover the bills that I pay from it and I can't allow Google to withdraw on that bank account again. How can I switch payment methods so that it will not automatically bill the wrong account AGAIN?
Edit: "ARGH!" again. I found a thread about billing to your AT&T account being added and there was a screenshot distinctly showing AT&T billing as a drop-down in some kind of checkout page in the Market app. Thinking I must have somehow missed it, I installed Titanium Backup and then chose to purchase the key. Once again there was NO checkout and it just went ahead and purchased without ever giving the option to provide a funding source. How on Earth did they ever get my payment details and how to I manage them?!
I immediately canceled/refunded the order.
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Click to collapse
Log into your Google account on a PC and then manage you google checkout options. The card is in there.
zelendel said:
Log into your Google account on a PC and then manage you google checkout options. The card is in there.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, but I already looked for Google Checkout options in the logical places last month and found nothing, but I shouldn't have to even look: It is illogical that they would use the service without my permission and without informing me. Even so, I checked Google.com>More>Even More while logged in and searched in the page for "Check" with no results. I am logged in. On the Google page I only have search related configuration options.
OK, so I tried to go to checkout.google.com MANUALLY and it forwarded me to "Google Wallet," which I have never used before. I had to agree to all kinds of things just to get in there and delete the card, so it's like they were holding it hostage until I agree. One thing is for sure: I NEVER agreed to automatically be charged through the Android Market. *NOW* will I finally be prompted for payment options when I chose to buy an app? I'll find out soon.
They are getting pretty sloppy. First, I got slammed by over $30 of texting fees because their Google Voice app said it was receiving the messages in the messaging app instead of saying that it was forwarding them to my mobile number (Grrr... without even a warning about potential fees, they worded it exactly like the feature I was looking for: like iMessage and BBX or SMS GV Extensions on iPhone integrating with the native text messaging app).
The fact that there is no mention of GCO/Wallet anywhere on the Android Market options or help pages is a serious oversight.
Oh yeah I forgot that Google check was changed to Google wallet recently. I know when I buy an app it tells me what card it is charging it to before I buy it
same here. I didn't start using the Android Market until the 10 cent deals came out. It asked me if I wanted to charge it to my cell provider or enter a new credit card. Each time I make a purchase I have both of those options, though my credit card info is saved with Google Wallet or what ever it is. Then I have to manually enter my pin. I wasn't sure what this was at first, but tried my phone lock pin and that was it.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
Last week I noticed a device under my Google Play account (My Devices) that is not mine, a phone on a Romanian cell phone company network. I also noticed that someone from Russia had accessed my Gmail account. I changed my Gmail password (the old one was alpha-numerica,random, with symbols) and turned on two step authentication.
The Gmail account seems to be ok. The contacts all there and no messages removed or messages sent by people other than me.
The only sign of the intrusion is about a dozen "free" apps ordered by that device. It included sketchy gambling apps, a child's game that from comments I read has adult advertisements, and ringtones. After I changed the password there are new "free" media on the account - books and various video. These appear to be from a different user - all in English as opposed to Russian and nothing sketchy.
My guess on how this started - I downloaded an app with about 100 reviews. The next day the "free" apps started to appear, and the unauthorized device also was added the next day.
My SGS 3 isn't rooted. For Jellybean it seems that I have to wait for a stable root, should be another few days.
I contacted the Play Store support and they were of no help. They referred me to Gmail support but Gmail doesn't offer phone support. I think only support on a Google Group forum.
Any idea how this could have happened and how to get this device off of my account? My PC's are secure and my primary PC is Linux.
starfcker69 said:
Last week I noticed a device under my Google Play account (My Devices) that is not mine, a phone on a Romanian cell phone company network. I also noticed that someone from Russia had accessed my Gmail account. I changed my Gmail password (the old one was alpha-numerica,random, with symbols) and turned on two step authentication.
The Gmail account seems to be ok. The contacts all there and no messages removed or messages sent by people other than me.
The only sign of the intrusion is about a dozen "free" apps ordered by that device. It included sketchy gambling apps, a child's game that from comments I read has adult advertisements, and ringtones. After I changed the password there are new "free" media on the account - books and various video. These appear to be from a different user - all in English as opposed to Russian and nothing sketchy.
My guess on how this started - I downloaded an app with about 100 reviews. The next day the "free" apps started to appear, and the unauthorized device also was added the next day.
My SGS 3 isn't rooted. For Jellybean it seems that I have to wait for a stable root, should be another few days.
I contacted the Play Store support and they were of no help. They referred me to Gmail support but Gmail doesn't offer phone support. I think only support on a Google Group forum.
Any idea how this could have happened and how to get this device off of my account? My PC's are secure and my primary PC is Linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the IMEI # of the phone added to my account, also the model number (registered in Russian Federation). Could the IMEI be useful? I can PM if interested.
Imeis are quite useful to many people...Just don't pursue this on xda.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
My account too was almost hacked.
I signed into youtube and a notice was shown that someone from ip in china tried to log into my google account and it denied them and i changed my password. No weird apps nothing.
The thing is probably the app you downloaded.
Just because it has 100 downloads doesn't mean its malware but you need to check permissions always.
Even big games like "Paper Toss" has been know to sell peoples info to companies.
When you read permissions. There should be a list of all the options the app requests.
Be Smart. If you download a calculator, It shouldn't have access to your personal identy, messages and the big key is internet access.
If you download a calender it may need access to contacts but it it also needs internet access, its probably is storing your contacts and sending them out to a site that then sells to a company and lastly, your grandparents receive phone calls asking if they want to buy a service and use your name as who referred them.
Also. rooting is a good option. With an app on here called pdroid or droidwall you can download those apps but it will alert yyou when the app wants to use a permission (like internet) and gives you the option to allow or deny.
good luck
I have one update. I think that after I changed my password and went to two step verification, the purchases of "free" apps and media stopped. It's been four days and nothing new added. So far so good. Thanks for the replies. BTW, Google of no help.
I'd still like to know how the Gmail account was compromised - I may never know.
similar thing just happened to me (Galaxy Note) appeared on my account from no where. When I contacted google if they can help or if they are interested in tracking him down, all they said was we cant help you. And change the pw. Obviously I know that I need to change the pw. I know Apple would have tracked it down somehow if it was an iphone. My pw has 22 characters number letter symbols yet it was hacked.
Since google is not helping me I installed Android Lost app on this NOTE and waiting to get a location update via email. I know it wont do anything much and I cant do anything against him or her since no paid apps were downloaded. Still I would like to do something to crooks like this. He only had 6 apps installed (facebook,viber candy rush) and terminal emulator (which worried me).
I really hope that Android close their unlimited backdoors in the OS.
Hi,
I'm a Canadian in the US for the next few days and would like to sign up for the Google Play Music service. However, despite logging into my account from a US IP address, I still get the error message that this service is not yet avaiable in my country or territory.
A lot of sites state it's easy to sign up once you log in from a US IP using a vpn or proxy in Canada, but I'm in the US and still having trouble.
Could someone help me sort this out? These same sites also claim that once you've signed up, you can access the service in Canada.
What is Google looking at to identify I have a Canadian account? I've changed my G+ profile info to a US address (the one I'm staying at), changed my credit card info to this same US address in Google Wallet, and the only thing I can think of that still ties me to Canada is my phone number.
What am I missing?
Thanks in advance!
You could try a few things
I'd say use a VPN to signup with a US Google email address, download a google music apk somewhere other than playstore, if it doesn't have it available in Canada then sign in with that info, though accessing may be country restricted too so even playing it may be a hassle. I suggest using a program called tunnelbear. buy a subscription for a year of service, it offers VPN for Canada, US, UK, and many others. I use it to stream BBC content through the BBC iPlayer application on my android phone.
https://www.tunnelbear.com/
Hope this helps
Hey tswillette, thanks for the tip. If I can't sort this out while I'm here, I'll try your approach when I get back home.
FreakSense: Online Privacy Shield is able, once downloaded and installed on our Android smartphones or tablet, to scan and do a search on all the applications installed on the device that we have access to our online profiles. The search can be carried out to discover the applications that have access to our data from Facebook, Yahoo !, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram and Flickr. These are the main ones, but you can add other online services.
Online Privacy Shield also will catalog the software used on the PC
What might seem strange is that it should be listed not only the applications that you have currently installed on your device, but also applications that have also uninstalled a long time or you have installed on your PC. But what assures us that not Online Privacy Shield does just what he fights for? I mean, who assures us that it does not store our data?
The answer lies in the fact that, in addition to being specified in the description on the Play Store, whenever we want to scan an online service, we have to re-enter again our data.
cloudyjohn said:
FreakSense: Online Privacy Shield is able, once downloaded and installed on our Android smartphones or tablet, to scan and do a search on all the applications installed on the device that we have access to our online profiles. The search can be carried out to discover the applications that have access to our data from Facebook, Yahoo !, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram and Flickr. These are the main ones, but you can add other online services.
Online Privacy Shield also will catalog the software used on the PC
What might seem strange is that it should be listed not only the applications that you have currently installed on your device, but also applications that have also uninstalled a long time or you have installed on your PC. But what assures us that not Online Privacy Shield does just what he fights for? I mean, who assures us that it does not store our data?
The answer lies in the fact that, in addition to being specified in the description on the Play Store, whenever we want to scan an online service, we have to re-enter again our data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't know about this app before. Doesn't seem that useful to me frankly. I'd rather restrict access to my info than simply be told who has already acessed it. Furthermore, it is not open source. That is usually a no-no for security/privacy apps as you then have to hope the developers aren't lying about any claims they make.
Have a look at OpenPDroid or even CM11 in-built Privacy Guard or AppOps for some examples of tools that restrict what apps can do/access on your device.
Incidentally, having to re-enter your online credentials isn't evidence of anything. The app may still transmit your data and credentials to external servers without your knowledge or permission anyway and the need to re-enter the credentials just ensures that it always has up-to-date credentials in case you changed your passphrase/password for instance. An open source app that you can build yourself removes any doubt.
Hi,
I have some (big) trouble with the google play store and the country setting. I'm an expat software engineer and are changing my location frequently. The play store only allows me to change my country once a year and to change the country I need a payment method in this country. It's not always easy to create a bank account in any country and I don't want to create always a bank account. Besides in many countries you only get a credit card if you are having a monthly income in that country. And even then there is still one year barrier to change your country.
Usually it's not a big deal as most apps are available every where. But some serves apps for government, cell carrier, public transportation and others are region locked. It is very annoying and troublesome not to have access to them.
Is there any best practice to change the country? Is the only way to have multiple google accounts or is there a more convenient way?
Thanks up front for your help.