Someone accessed my account and reported my phone stolen, why?

[Chris_E]

Yesterday I lost all signal on my phone and it transpired that my IMEI number was blacklisted. When speaking to live chat this morning, they said that I had called at 16:34 yesterday and reported the phone as stolen, which I didn't do. Strangely enough at 16:32 I received a witheld number call that immediately hung up.

I've secured my account and unlocked my phone, but it's really worrying that someone was able to pass the security checks to get into my account. The only way I can think it was possible for them to do this is that my online log in details were the same as that of another site that had been comprimised, so they could have logged in and seen my billing info etc. I've since changed all passwords.

My questions are this:

1) Why would someone want to report my phone stolen? What's in it for them?

2) Has anyone heard of this happening before?

3) I've changed the passwords to all my important accounts, is there anything else I should do?

Thanks

[MI5]

@Chris_E 

I can't think of any benefit to anyone for reporting your phone missing other than to cause you harassment in getting it sorted. 
If they changed your address too, they could gain access to a new sim but you're too likely to have noticed the issue and plugged it by then. 
change your password and security word regularly and don't use the same details for different accounts is good advice. 
Using a password generator can also add levels of security. 

[jonsie]

This may be of some help...

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

[Bambino]

@Chris_E  Regardless of whether you've been able to secure your account, the incident should be reported to the police. https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

[Anonymous]

@Chris_E 

Also, try and make the passwords you use as long and complex as you can, including UPPERCASE and lowercase letters, numbers and add a few symbols in there too such as @;#~>$% and don't use anything like your partner or kids names, sports team or pets names or words as you need to make it as hard to crack as possible.

[Nick_K]

The exact same thing has happened to me today. Yesterday i received a call from someone who clearly wasn't o2 security asking me about some upgrades on my account, i started questioning him and he hung up soon after.

This morning i wake up with no service.

Go on o2 chat and my phone and SIM have been reported stolen. I can't think what is in it for them, its worrying and a nuisance for the user.

[MI5]

@EmilieT @ @Martin-O2 worth passing these cases over to fraud to investigate?

[Cleoriff]

Very worrying!

[Martin-O2]

Thanks for the tag on this one @MI5. It's unusual to see 2 of these incidents so close together. I'll report it to the team and if they need any further info I might need to get some details from you @Chris_E, @Nick_K. 

[Chris_E]

No worries