O2 : Revisited
When fraudsters steal your details and try to impersonate you, you’d expect large companies to do everything they can to stop them in their tracks and screen them out. In March last year, we spoke to a number of people who were stressed because O2 was chasing them for debts run up on mobile contracts, they’d never even heard of. They told us O2 simply wouldn’t listen to them.
But it appears there are still problems with these types of accounts. In May this year Sarah received letters from O2 telling her she owed them money for accounts that she did not open. And she’s never had an O2 contract.
She told us:
“I first received three letters in the post to say that I was owing three different monetary values. I've now ended up with about 18 to 20 letters from O2, chasing this money on this account that isn't mine.”
“I was really shocked. You know, you don't expect anything like this to happen to you?” Sarah said.
And although the total bill only amounted to £80, O2 told Sarah bailiffs would have to be involved if she didn’t pay. But she is currently trying to secure a much-needed mortgage and she’s worried this will make her application fail.
Sarah’s not the only person we’ve spoken to.
Steven realised there was problem in June when payment demands from O2 landed on his doormat. It’s been 5 weeks since he made them aware that he wasn’t an O2 customer and asked them to stop the mail. He told us:
“They keep sending me bills, stop sending me bills until the investigation is over. It's stressful because I don't want debt collectors coming to my door. I've always kept a very good credit report.”
Fraudsters also tried to open an account with a different provider using Steven’s name – which he discovered when checking his credit report online and the company acted decisively. Unlike O2, says Steven:
“They keep saying we'll escalate the situation. They said that the time last time and the time before that, but nothing”. Steven added.
Scott Helme is a cyber security expert who often helps people in these situations. He gave us his opinion:
“For a multibillion-dollar company one would hope that the number of these fraudulent accounts is very, very small. The interest of the consumer is the thing that has to take precedent here I don't feel like that's always the case. “
“And we're always going to see fraud like this but if we speak to any of the victims here, I'm sure that they would all say that the process to deal with afterwards is not robust enough and more should be done there.” said Scott.
A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:
"We've investigated the cases presented by Watchdog and taken steps to close the accounts, wipe all debt and apologise to the victims for the time taken to resolve this. The accounts were opened by highly sophisticated fraudsters using a substantial amount of the victims' personal data, banking details and identity documents which allowed them to successfully pass security and credit checks.
"Fraud is a highly professionalised and organised crime and we're constantly evolving our processes to keep consumers safe. Last year alone, we prevented £70 million of fraudulent activity from taking place and continue to implement new tools and checks to help prevent fraud.”
