Fraud : Alive and Kicking!

[Cleoriff]

As the post count has dropped, I thought I'd drop this in here today.

I have a Sim Only contract. I also pay for a sim only for my grandson. When I took out his, I asked if he could have control of his My O2. As he was at ours, they had a word with him and it was agreed. So basically the sim only is in my name, with my bank details but he accesses his own  My O2. (His email and password)

This weekend he's in Belgium on a stag weekend!!

I had an email from him with 2 attachments.

The first attachment was a contract for an iPhone 16, complete with airtime. Total 41.36p a month.

2nd link was letting him know they were doing a credit check.

I knew this was fraud as I wouldn't touch an iphone. 😂

Luckily they then sent him a text with a number to call re a couple of credit queries

I knew this was O2 credit check number.

So I rang. 5 minute wait and it was answered.

I explained the situation. The guy checked and said there was no order for an iphone on my account.

I said you are  looking on the wrong account, Check this number (Grandsons)

He checked and said oh yes!!!

So I had to go through some basic security questions.

They cancelled the 'Contract' and he  said I'm sure I don't need to tell you to ask your grandson to change his password. I said it's already changed.

TBH, I did  feel a bit shaken up after this. To my knowledge, this is the first time I've had fraud attempted on my account.

So beware all....

[Enlli]

Came to this late so I guess what needs saying has been said.

Must be very worrying. 

Hope it's been caught in time.

[Cleoriff]

Thanks @Enlli 

You think of so many things you should have asked when you put the phone down, such as " How can someone place an order on an account which doesn't belong to them? For instance, how in gods name did they access his personal information?"

I'm sure the guy from O2 wouldn't have told me the truth but my grandson is no-ones fool. He doesn't talk about his account to anyone. He's 26 in two weeks time and perfectly able to pay for his own sim only plan but we've been doing it since he was at Uni, with no credit rating and I'm quite happy to carry on doing it.

Particularly when he's shown how responsible he is letting me know immediately this landed in his inbox.

[Oxonian]

---

@Cleoriff wrote:

You think of so many things you should have asked when you put the phone down, such as " How can someone place an order on an account which doesn't belong to them? For instance, how in gods name did they access his personal information?"

---

Have you considered @Cleoriff reporting this to the O2 DPO ? His e-mail address is at :-

Information Commissioner's Office - Register of data protection fee payers - Entry details

https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/Z5664801

Virgin Media O2 Data Privacy Policy - Virgin Media O2

https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/careers-privacy-policy/

One possible explanation about your personal information is a data leak ; another is a rogue employee. The DPO might want to examine those and other possibilities ? 

[gmarkj]

Scary that they managed to do all this without seeming to hit any security checks.

Pleased that he paid enough attention while busy to send everything to you, and that o2 have apparently caught it in time.

I'd agree that there does seem to be something fishy going on, so bringing this to the attention of someone within o2 is a good idea.

[Dave-O2]

Thanks for the heads up @Cleoriff 

I am glad to hear it was quickly reported to the Fraud Team and shut down.

Let me know if you notice any other strange occurrences 👍

[Cleoriff]

@gmarkj 

I know my grandson checks his My O2 more often than I do. So I'm not surprised he caught this as soon as he turned his phone on when the plane landed in Belgium.

I've asked him if he had any OTP's. He said none at all.

I'm just grateful that the security check felt they needed to get him  to ring them. Possibly as the account is in my name but the email address is his. Who knows?

All I know is, someone accessed his account (Obviously online) and ordered a top of the range iPhone. 

He received the contract via email and another message to say they were doing a security check. 

Then they text him with the number he was to phone to 'answer a couple of security checks'. That's when I called them.

The stupid thing from them was when they checked my own account and said there was no iPhone ordered on the account. I had to say, you are looking at the wrong account, you need to check my grandsons number which is xxxxxxxxxxxxx. That's when they discovered the fraudulent iPhone order (and hopefully cancelled it!)

[Cleoriff]

---

@Dave-O2 wrote:

Thanks for the heads up @Cleoriff 

I am glad to hear it was quickly reported to the Fraud Team and shut down.

Let me know if you notice any other strange occurrences 👍

---

You'll be the first person I contact @Dave-O2. 😂

I'm not ashamed to say this really shocked me but thankfully they text the grandson the 'Security Check' phone number to call, which gave me the opportunity to call them and start 'screaming IT'S FRAUD' before he'd said more than 2 words 🤣

[Cleoriff]

Well there's no end to this apparently.

Today I received a proposed contract for this iPhone 16, through the post. The letter was dated the 11th Feb (It was the 8th Feb when my grandson received contract details via email.)

So naturally I was still concerned. (Although the 8th was a Saturday and this was sent last Monday 11th, I needed to ensure this had been shut down. So I rang fraud again.

Sadly this time I spoke to a foreign advisor who didn't quite understand that although both accounts were in my name, my grandson handled his own My O2.

Eventually I thought he understood. He would put a note on Bens number about the fraudulent activity. (I'm  thinking, there should already be a note)

Next thing, grandson rings me from a friends phone. They have cut his phone off!!

Back on the phone I go, speak to someone different. Yet again I think she understands but says someone from fraud will ring me back and they can't put my grandsons phone back on until it's sorted with them

He can't manage without this phone, it's important for his work.

What a bloody nightmare!

I  have PM'd @Dave-O2  to see if there is anything he can do.

So sick of all of this. Why in gods name did the guy I spoke to today think he needed to cut off Bens phone?

He's not the scammer. 

Why wasn't there already a note on the account to say I'd phoned on the 8th to report fraud on this number?

[Enlli]

Hope @Dave-O2 can do something 

Makes an absolute mockery of their claim to be spending £1 million a day on customer services. I suspect the majority of that is going into someone's deep pocket.

[Bambino]

Sorry to hear that, @Cleoriff. O2's incompetence runs deep. I doubt this will get resolved quickly. Your grandson should probably get a cheap PAYG phone (from another provider) as a stopgap until this hopefully gets resolved.