(News)Phone Got Stolen

[Anonymous]

Heya just read an article stating someones phone got stolen and the thiefs made calls and used it which made the bill go to £15000
And its on Vodafone...
Why dont networks just turn it off after a certain amount..


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2798454/my-phone-stolen-holiday-vodafone-making-pay-15-000-b...

[MI5]

I believe o2 does have a limit but you should always report any loss immediately anyway.

[jonsie]

A stolen contract mobile is like money in the bank to thieves...:smileysad:

[Cleoriff]

All a bit suspicious anyway...the guy reckoned he reported it missing that night...Voda say 4 days after it was stolen...

[anticpated]

This is why people should use remote locking and wipes. Vodafone should instantly disabled the imei and associated sim.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous 

Every Network does have as we know procedures to report a phone lost or stolen so theirs little excuse not to report it as so if a person is alive and awake. 

However that hat amount is enormous and I would have thought any Network would see that the account was being used as not normal usage pattern and acted. 

As said a Contract Sim is a cash cow and thus that's one of the reasons I'd personally not take mine abroad (if I was on a contract) and instead use a Local Sim Card. 

No worries of this and no accidental large bills to return to but such an avenue would need a little prior homework to establish call costs etc. 

[Cleoriff]

I go abroad frequently (about 8 times a year) I am on contract and using a local sim is not an option for me as my phone is locked to O2.

I do take a cheap PAYG phone with me, purely as back up in case one phone fails...(I know I know...this is me just being over cautious)

The point is, most people always think about the PHONE being stolen....they never really give much thought  to the SIM.....

[Anonymous]

Totally agree.

You could Unlock the phone for free as your in contract ,if you ever wanted to, to allow the use of a local SIM card if that ever interested you in the future ,or at least allowed another option say if an O2 sim failed whilst away abroad.

[Anonymous]

Interesting post, it raises some good points.

First of all nowadays if u dont use a pin protected mobile you are just taking ur chances and this can happen to u...Yes it is annoying having to enter the pin all the time but I bet it would be even more annoying having to pay £15000 on something that could have been easily prevented.

On the subject of why they were allowed that much and Vodafone didn't bar it, i don't know what the delays is nowadays with them,but it can be anything from 4 to 12 hours for the calls in the UK to show and for roaming charges it can be up to 3 months,and the system to flag it, also the customer could have been with them for a while and had high bills before, so her "credit limit" could have been high. This is an educated guess by the way, my money is on because he was roaming the foreign network took their time sending the charges back to the UK.

[Anonymous]

Shame the SIM pin code protection wasnt active.