SCAM WARNING JAN 2015

[Anonymous]

Dear .............................

We are contacting you today with regard to the following device(s) which are linked to your O2 account and monthly mobile plan.

Mobile Number: .........................
Monthly Plan: O2 600 24 month £37.99 per month

In response to an increase in VAT in the EU and currency changes, and as a result of last week's VAT-related price change, it has come to our attention that between Oct 2012 and Oct 2014 there was a system error which resulted in some of our customers paying the incorrect rate of VAT on some services.

Please confirm that the account holder information as displayed below is correct;
Account Holder: ......................
Date of Birth: ....................

We've recalculated your bills and can confirm that you're owed £62.50.
This amount will be credited to your account and will appear on your next bill

In order for the refund to be processed, we request that you click here and log into your O2 account to validate yourself as the account holder.

This procedure must be completed within 24 hours. Regards,
The O2 Team

[MI5]

I'm sure you couldn't as you're not Anne Robinson or Christopher Graham

[Anonymous]

Oh well I tried.

[Anonymous]

Well we did get a response from o2. No surprises in here. "It wasn't us guv". But here it is in is full narrative (o2 have confirmed I may release. .... For what it's worth)

Thank you for letting us know you’ve had a problem and for giving us a chance to help. To do this I have considered your complaint and all of the issues involved.
Having done so, I am not able to uphold your complaint. I will now explain my reasons why. My understanding of your complaint
You explain that over the past few weeks you’ve become aware that some O2 customers have received phishing emails which seem to have been sent by O2, but have actually been sent by unknown third parties. The O2 community has threads regarding this subject and some of our customers have become concerned about how this may affect them.
You’d like to know how this happened and if a breach of information security has occurred in line with our responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 1998.
My investigation
It’s unfortunate that we, like many organisations, are targeted by scammers who impersonate our company in order to try to steal sensitive information from customers. It’s always concerning for us when our customers receive phishing emails claiming to be O2. We work hard to help customers here. For example, we provide an email address for customers to report scams to us (phishing@o2.com) and we use social media to keep customers informed about particular scams. We also provide general advice and support at o2.co.uk about how to spot scams. (see below)
With the particular instance you refer to in your complaint, some of our customers have received an email which looks very much like it has been sent by O2. It has our O2 logo and even our correct head office address at the bottom of the email. The email also includes some customer information in an attempt to convince the customer it is O2. The phishing email asks customers to click on links within it to verify certain information and to access their bill. But these links do not take you to the genuine O2 web site.
As you might expect, we have specialists who investigate scams reported by customers. We also take various steps to combat scammers. Whilst, I see your letter raises a concern that “there has been a data breach either within o2 or an o2 partner.”,, please note that our investigations into these emails have found no such security breach.
In the meantime, if you receive a phishing email, the most important thing is that you don’t click on the link or reply to the email and then your personal information will stay safe. If you do receive one that appears to come from O2, please forward it to phishing@o2.com . This mailbox is monitored by our fraud team. Whilst we won’t be able to tell you who sent the email or stop them from sending more, it’s important for us to know what type of emails the fraudsters are sending so we can investigate. We will use this information to investigate and do all we can to shut down the scammers as well as co-operating with the police where appropriate.
My actions
As mentioned above I can’t uphold your complaint as we haven’t breached security. If you’ve personally received any phishing emails please send a copy to either myself or our phishing email address. My email address is (edited personal info)
Next steps
We take the subject of security very seriously and we’re constantly working hard to help prevent fraudulent activity from happening.
We have a page on our website where you can find out more about phishing emails here http://www.o2.co.uk/help/everything-else/phishing#qs and there’s also a few examples of what phishing email could look like here http://news.o2.co.uk/2014/05/29/phishing-alert-may-2014/
I hope this explains things for you. If you wish to discuss your complaint further, please contact me on 034533000683

[Cleoriff]

Just a query here. I read all these letters posted by @Anonymous  this morning when they first appeared....and now I notice they have been edited. I can't for the life of me see what has been edited/changed/removed?

[Beenherebefore]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

Just a query here. I read all these letters posted by @Anonymous  this morning when they first appeared....and now I notice they have been edited. I can't for the life of me see what has been edited/changed/removed?

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My email address is (edited personal info)

[Anonymous]

Hi @Cleoriff

Sorry for the delay in replying. The thread has had small alterations. Basically the personal details were removed as site rules state these should not be included.

I had checked with the person who sent me letter if I could copy it out in full onto Community and this was confirmed that I could however the email address and names were removed.

Nothing more sinister than that I'm afraid. No conspiracy theories this time either.

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi @Cleoriff

Sorry for the delay in replying. The thread has had small alterations. Basically the personal details were removed as site rules state these should not be included.

I had checked with the person who sent me letter if I could copy it out in full onto Community and this was confirmed that I could however the email address and names were removed.

Nothing more sinister than that I'm afraid. No conspiracy theories this time either.

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That's fine Nick    Beenherebefore obviously had noticed what had been edited so I understood then........ I have no skill at conspiracy theories...I leave that to others..

[Anonymous]

That said. Until the press get the story and run with it we will continue to be in danger.

My personal opinion is that o2 are aware of the breach and are trying to close it before the big announcement that 25 million uk customers are at risk from one of the uk's largest ever data breaches.

Imagine the fine ££££££

[Cleoriff]

Well said Nick.:smileywink:

[Anonymous]

In a post towards end of last month one of the Community Co-Ordinators referred us to an alert from "The Blue" (whatever that is) at http://news.o2.co.uk/2014/05/29/phishing-alert-may-2014/) 

I am not sure if that has since been updated, but one of the "warning signs" it suggested we look for when trying to decide if an email allegedly from O2 is a scam is the fact that "Finally, we’ve retired our online virtual agent, Lucy, so you can’t ask her anything."

I have today received an email purporting to be from O2 (o2shop@o2.com) informing me that my Bill for xx/02/15 (reagrding a P&G account that I have for a family member) is now ready etc etc.  The email looks very genuine and all the links in it seem to be pointing to http:// o2.co.uk / myo2account  though I do not know enough about these things to know whether they can be misleading.  But the email also contains the sentence

"If you have any questions, just ask Lucy. "  with the words "ask Lucy" being a link to http:// o2.co.uk/ asklucy.

The email does not contain any information about the particular phone, its number or my O2 Account reference and it does not actually invite me to do anything.  The amount of the bill is correct, but if it had been for a higher amount and demanding payment I probably would have ignored it on the basis of the advice previously given that Lucy has been retired (or outsourced to O2 Community back-office).  So the advice given by O2 in this matter needs further revision I think.