SCAMMERS ARE PRETENDING TO BE FROM O2 - 02045996817
If you're not sure if a call is legitimate, take a name or reference and say you'll call the company back.
Get the right contact number from your paperwork or the official website & check the website address thoroughly.
***NEVER USE ANY CONTACT DETAILS OR WEBSITE ADDRESSES GIVEN TO YOU ON THAT CALL***
So I had some fun yesterday. I started getting login texts for My O2, figured someone just mistyped until I got a call. Guess what the call was about!
The caller said that they were from O2 and wanted to give me a 40% discount because I paid my bills on time (I'm PAYG). They also insisted they could see all of my details but couldn't tell me a thing about me or my account.
The scammer then said they needed to verify that I owned the number I was speaking to them on (?) and that was the reason for those texts. Even though they don't say that. When challenged they went into word-salad territory, something about needing it because they weren't calling from a personal mobile or something? It made absolutely no sense, probably because she was winging it at that point.
I asked why the text said not to give the code to ANYONE - including O2 staff - fake O2 lady said it meant to not give it to anyone AFTER this call. She also insisted that it told me that O2 would be calling me to ask for the code (obvs it doesn't say anything like that).
We went round in circles for a bit because I was bored & wanted to take time away that she'd spend on other victims. Eventually I asked to speak to the manager (aka the lad sitting next to the person I was currently talking to). Then I wasted his time for as long as possible 😈
Whenever I asked a difficult question they both did the usual trick of talking over you and repeating what they'd said in the vain hope that I'd give up and give them the code.
They insisted everything was legit "because only O2 can send those texts" - not true since the number was spoofed and the text is sent whenever ANYONE puts a number into the website to log in. As usual they denied this even after I read the entire text out to them. Twice to make sure!
I've worked in call centres for decades and no legitimate company will mind you calling back to make sure they're not a scammer. If the caller says an offer will stop if the call is ended, that's a HUGE red flag. Why would a legitimate business have an offer that ends when the call does?
Anyway, if you get one of these and have the time, please feel free to waste their time so they can't scam vulnerable people. Don't give any of your details because they usually have spreadsheets to note down what you say and use it in future calls to try to seem legitimate. I've had "washing machine warranty" calls that said I had one type of machine - when I said it was a different make/model they called back two weeks later and confirmed the make/model to try to persuade me they were legit (I had neither BTW).
It was fun asking them to put me through to book an engineer, since they said the warranty hasn't run out yet and my fictitious machine had spontaneously broken just before the call. Of course, that was after I'd put the phone down on a table and wandered off for twenty minutes, I'd decided to try to find the serial number on the pretend machine since they'd obviously need it for the warranty 😁
I'm wondering if O2 might consider amending the text wording to get around what the scammers are saying now?
Anyway, I can highly recommend watching Kitboga on YouTube since he's a pro at baiting scammers to the extent that he's created an AI chatbot to keep them occupied for as long as possible - plus he's just a really nice guy!
Sorry for the long post but hopefully this will help someone, I've posted the number twice in case it'll come up on internet searches too 🙂
