@NeilJM It looks like, at some point earlier this year you have signed up for a third party subscription service called ESR TV. The most recent renewal notice they sent you via SMS (from 5415) on Sept 10th would have stated the below:
Your access to ESR TV at esrtv.com/ca has been renewed until 10/10 for $14.99 CAD a month. To cancel, text STOP ESR to 5415 for free. Help? supportca@esrtv.com or call or 8558005173
Please follow the step above to cancel and if you’d like to dispute anything pls call the 855 number in the text. I hope this helps.
Thank you for the reply. I never did sign up for anything called ESR TV. I have obviously been scammed. I should have looked into this extra charge a lot sooner but it is also not right that Koodo is allowing such scam charges like this to persist...as I have been reading / discovering on this Help forum. This is not a new problem. I think it is time a switch back to Telus. At least with Telus I never once received a scam charge.
Thank you for the help though. I will try texting stop to 5415. And I will be switching back to Telus asap. :(
Another update: I also have NEVER even once received any kind of text like the one you referenced above. If I had, I most certainly would have noticed. And another thing: on my bill, the text is always shown to have sent around 5am in the morning! I don’t even have my phone turned on & available then. I have it plugged in and charging, yes. But not turned on and available to accept texts. Not at 5am in the morning!! And lastly, I did send a STOP ESR text to 5415 (as suggested) and absolutely NOTHING happened...I got zero reply back.
Do you happen to have this number blocked on your phone?
No, I just now re-checked my text "Spam & blocked" folder on my phone, and that offending phone # is nowhere to be seen.
So again, there is no way I ever said YES to this monthly charge, as I never had a chance to even say NO to it! I received no text from them ever and the phone # was never blocked. So I definitely got scammed. Not sure how exactly, but definitely got scammed.
In this case I would definitely email supportca@esrtv.com or call or 8558005173
Another update: please see this link … ESRTV 2022 Reports & Reviews - ScamPulse.com
PROOF that ESRTV is 100% a scam and they are passing on fraudulent charges by just being provided a cell # only (any cell 
with no actual confirmed consent needed/required or any kind of secondary email verification system.
Therefore, anyone at ESRTV can just pick any random phone # and start charging fraudulent fees with ZERO confirmed consent from the actual owner of any particular phone #.
Scam! Scam! Scam!
I have emailed ESR TV again. If I do not receive a full refund for the last nine months (9 x $14.99), I will also be cancelling with Koodo.
9 months?
How has it taken 9 months to see this?
My fault that I didn't spot it sooner, yes. But in my defense, the way the monthly bill is presented, the extra charge was not clear to me.
I never had a problem spotting extra charges with Telus.
I just noticed my wife has just been charged the same amount since July 2022! I can’t even find how to figure out what company it is. I can’t even go back to July in my Koodo account. What to do? Changing phone number won’t fix it will it?
Update - Just found 5415 on the phone. Text msg received July 1 asking to enter PIN twice (2 different text msg). 3rd message says welcome and you will be charged $14.99/mth. This is with no response from my wife to the first 2 messages! Txt msg received on Aug. 1 and Sep. 1 for renewals. I just texted them with STOP ESR and received a response back after a couple minutes saying subscription is cancelled. Hopefully that’s the end of it! (Warning-You may have to send that message in all UPPERCASE or it may not work. I initially sent it lower case and did not receive a reply until I sent it again in uppercase!
Yeah, the whole thing stinks of scam. FYI, I did talk to someone at Telus support and the woman on the phone confirmed with me that the problem is 100% the fault of Google Play Store...as that is where the first initial “hijack” originates from. I did write an email to Google Support a while back explaining the problem/concern. I haven’t heard anything back yet. But for sure, this is a very serious security & privacy issue.
Yes, my account just got scammed with this exact same method from Aug onwards.
More and more people are getting scammed as I see other threads on this community too.
Koodo needs to step up and refund all of us as they allowed this charges to happen without our consent or any outgoing texts.
I am going to file a law-suit next week.
As I said it my most recent post, the problem actually originates from Google Play store, not the cell phone providers. Though I definitely do agree with you that ALL cellular companies need to take this seriously and step up to ensure that all of these corrupt/shady companies are banned or face stiff penalties & criminal charges. Right now, these scam companies like ESRTV.com are getting away with all of it and suffer zero penalty. That's stupid and must be stopped asap. So yeah, cellular companies should for sure be taking a lead role in stopping this SCAM nonsense.
Ah I’m a little weary of it being a google play store fault. I’m aware of toll fraud malware that slips through google play store scans of apps, and it’s also third party install possible, that will hide a SMS notification and auto reply if installed. I’m not sure that the problem actually originated from GPS unless Koodo was able to verify that particular vendor strictly paid for this instance of malware to do it and that’s what happened in your case.
It is indeed a serious issue and I hope to see something more permanent come out for it.
I texted the 5415 number and a notice came on the screen saying this was a blocked number and asking if I wanted to unblock it. So by unblocking I got to see all the monthly notices that I was being charged $4.99 a week. That message stated to cancel text “STOP MOBIO” to 5414. I had first sent STOP ESR and a minuit latter the STOP MOBIO, so not shure which generated a text back to me saying my subscription was cancelled. The notices started Tuesday September 13,2022 at 6:31pm.