I just received a call from this number 0800 952 4852 (08009524852)
After a long 'tell-tale' call centre pause, the caller claimed to be "Connor calling from O2" and thanked me for being a loyal O2 customer, and telling me that he has some great loyalty offers for me.
(This call came though at 11:30AM on a Wednesday while I was at work)
He then told me the exact model phone I currently have (followed by "is that right?") and then even stated the precise date that I took out my contract (again followed by "is that right?")
He then began asking questions about my family, such as how many people in my household and what phone network they were on.
I terminated the call and got straight on to O2 customer service to query this. (After first googling the number and seeing that hundreds of O2 customers have also raised this same issue)
Via O2 chat, I spoke to 'Vipin' and told him the number and the content of the conversation.
This was his response:
I've checked the number you've given me. This is not a direct call from O2. You'll receive calls from O2 from the numbers 0845 8630287 or 0800 0641087.
We have a few third party sales partners, and it would have been one of these who has called you.
I asked, if this is acceptable for a company that is NOT O2, to call me claiming that they ARE from O2?
This was his reply:
We do not share any of your information with unauthorized third party companies or individuals. Our sales partners can view your information only if the marketing services are enabled on your account.
My reply:
You have not answered my question, is it acceptable for a cold caller to claim that they are from O2 when they clearly are not? That's ok is it? O2 are happy for someone from another company to call me and tell me that he works at O2?
His reply:
I agree they should give you detailed information and not cause any confusion. They should say they are one of our partners and not directly from O2. I'll pass feedback so that such incidents are not repeated again.
He then asked me some security questions so he could disable the 3rd party contact option on my account.
Once this was done I said:
I still wish to escalate this complaint. Unknown numbers calling me from a company that is NOT O2 and claiming to be O2 is not acceptable, and this is seriously making me contemplate my future with O2 if you allow your partners to act in this way.
He said:
Sure. The next level of escalation is Customer Relation team. I'll forward your details to our Customer Relation team and they'll investigate the issue and get back to you with in 5 working days.
I guess I will see what they come back with, but I'm hoping that everyone reading this will contact O2 and disable this 3rd party contact option.
I detest cold calls, but much more so when they claim to be from a trusted company of which I am a customer and are already furnished with my personal details (which only further backs up their fraudulent claim that they are from O2), then dive straight into a fact find to log even more of my personal information.
Purely because of this inclident, it is unlikeley that I will now renew my contact with O2 if they are happy for their 'authorized partners' to act in this outrageous way. And if the number is not one of their 'authorized partners' then that's even worse, and I would like to know how they got hold of my personal details as well as very specific information regarding my phone and contract.
