Credit Card Rip-offs At Xmas

John_Pierpoint · 28 September 2007 at 7:19PM

Hi Moneysavers,

You could not make this up.

I, or is it my wife, as we have a letter addressed to Mr with an obviously female first name, have had a letter enclosing a new SIM card and commiserating that the old SIM card has gone wrong. The letter asks me to return the faulty SIM.

This new SIM card came security double wrapped.

It looks like dear old scumbag (or the sucker who bought the stolen 180 GBP of 'phone from him) is having problems with his SIM card.

It is good to know that there is no joined up management at "T" mobile. They must have had a charge back against the 25GBP that scumbag stole from them (See original postings).

I am wondering how to play this one. I think I will play it straight on Monday and phone up "Head of Security" at T-Mobile Hatfield to see if I get a satisfactory response. The other choices I appear to have are: To fill the voice mail box on the number. Lock the phone by getting the PIN code wrong three times. Send T-Mobile a letter complaining that the new SIM is also faulty.

Anybody got any thoughts on this one ?

John_Pierpoint · 1 October 2007 at 12:57PM

Guess what?
I telephoned "T Mobile" on 01707-315000:
"I cannot put you through to head of security - its company policy";
- With respect, do you expect me to discuss identity fraud with the telephone switchboard.
"I can switch you to customer services".
Here we go again press 1 for this 2 for that 3 to go round in a circle etc etc.
Eventually I ended up talking to some poor muppet, who self evidently did not enjoy English as her mother tongue:
"Are you a customer? Please can I have your mobile number".
- 07........3.
"Hullo Mr xxxxxxxx (a female name) YYYYYYY"
-That is really a bit silly don't you think? do I sound female?
(long pause)"Can I ask you the following security questions.....what is you address etc."
"But you ARE Mr YYYYYYY"
- Do you think this might be a case of identity fraud?
(more long pauses: it was obvious that moppet was seeking advice from someone)
"You must write in with proof"
- It is impossible to prove a negative; you are asking me to prove that I am NOT your customer??
(More pauses) "You must get in touch in writing, I can give you the address of Public Relations" [See posting above re "02"].
- You don't understand do you. I am not and I never have had any relationship with "T Mobile". I am not a customer nor a shareholder. I have telephoned you at my expense to try and help you sort out YOUR problem with fraud. Mobile 'phone companies have as much as 5% of their charges down to fraud. I have no intention in wasting more of my time if you are not prepared to put me through to someone intelligent. The next thing that will happen is the user of the stolen phone & number 07.......3 will contact you. It is your problem carry on wasting hundreds of pounds trying to understand what is happening.
(I think she had probably put the phone down by the time my rant had got that far)

If someone intelligent at "T Mobile" would like to contact me via my land line (I'm sure they recorded the call) or via a "moneysavingexpert" PM in the next few days, I would be happy to help, otherwise I will chuck the SIM card on the fire.

John_Pierpoint · 2 October 2007 at 3:13PM

Scumbag is getting desperate - another SIM card has arrived.:rolleyes:

John_Pierpoint · 6 October 2007 at 4:44PM

I butchered the second SIM card and mailed it back to "head of security" as instructed, two days ahead of the postal strike, asking him to get in touch with me by 'phone, Let us see what happens.

(But don't hold your breath - T-mobile obviously takes the data protection act and their losses to fraud really seriously. Do you trust them with your personal details.)

beanielou · 6 October 2007 at 8:43PM

You just couldent make it up!!
You are very stolical about it all!

saucy77 · 7 October 2007 at 5:31PM

Wow John you and your wife have definately had a time of it.
I really feel for you both, and am not shocked that the person who ordered the phone was from Northfleet, dodgy area all round there. (Grew up there, no intentions of going back).

I'm not supprised by the amount of aggro you are having with T-Mobile, they were never any good when they were One 2 None (1-2-1).

Sounds like it was PAYG, which is a shame, otherwise you could of at least had a number to go one possibly from the bill.
However, when you do finally get intouch with T-Mobile, they should be able to block the phone completely with the IMEI number of the phone they supplied to him. Placing any new sim in the phone will still render him useless, and the only place left for the phone would be the bin.

Maybe that is a point worth taking up with T-Mobile, when you do finally get through. As I am sure phone companies keep a record of all IMEI's they supply to their customers. I'm with O2 and 3 (not for much longer) and they recorded my IMEI number, so if my phone was ever stolen they could instantly block it.

I'm not sure if you know this, but an IMEI is the same as a serial number on electrical devices. Although mobile's have the IMEI number stuck on a label on the reverse of the phone, they are also embedded in the software of the phone.
You can change the embedded IMEI, but from what I understand of it... yes it's illegal to do this, but also a case of hit and miss. Meaning that the phone could be rendered useless if it don't pan out properly.

Fingers crossed for you and the wife.

Sheena x

John_Pierpoint · 8 October 2007 at 6:47PM

Hi Sheena,

Many thanks for the additional technical information. I wondered if, armed with your additional information, I could talk my way to speaking to an intelligent and knowledgeable human being at T-Mobile.
I did manage to extract a name from the switchboard, so I might try that one next time, if there is a next time; but I ended up with customer services again. I got a reasonably intelligent Scottish woman, but of course she thought she was helping a customer in difficulties and after a lot of a back and forth; we agreed that perhaps it was my wife's mobile phone. We now have a special password to talk about our non existent PAYG 'phone.

Eventually she realised that the whole incident did not add up and this looked like IDENTITY FRAUD (and she was also amazed to learn that since last Spring FRAUD is no longer counted as a crime if reported to the police by ordinary members of the public).

So this was out side her area of competence and she disappeared to talk to her boss "Ian" ('It is company policy that we do not give out surnames'); Well I don't know what "Ian" said to her during the next 10 minutes, but he refused to come on the 'phone and justify himself, and chose to hide behind the skirts of one of his most junior levels of staff. She was told to tell me that as the 'phone was PAYG there was nothing that could be done. My observation that they were protecting the identity of a criminal, and breaking the data protection act at the same time, did not seem to be their concern.
Out of misguided loyalty to her pathetic boss, she terminated the call.

These mobile 'phone companies must know that mobile phones are a very powerful tool for fighting crime - perhaps that is why the criminal "scumbag" has it registered in my name. For example, there is a major trunk road running through my area and some poor motorist was changing a flat late one night, when a lorry simply ran over his bending body and made instant orphans of his children. The police checked the mobile phones using the nearest tower at that time TOGETHER WITH RECORDINGS OF THE CONVERSATIONS ON THEM AT THE TIME. The inquest and subsequent manslaughter case was treated to a play back of a lorry driver, bowling along at full speed (you can work out the speed from the times at subsequent towers), chatting to his girlfriend that included something like ".........Oh F*** me, I thing I've just hit something". (I'm pleased to say he went down for a stretch).
If "Ian" and all the other idiots at T-Mobile can't understand why IDENTITY FRAUD is a crime, then I will have to see if The Information Commissioner, understands its seriousness.
[I do have a plan "B" if the IC pleads that "scumbag's" human rights makes it impossible for him to investigate, but I would need to get together several friends, relatives and supporters at the appropriate time]

Keep up the good work, fellow moneysavers.

TTFN

John

PS I've saved the best bit for last: in spite of my butchering the SIM card, somehow "scumbag" has got his phone working again: I gave him a ring and was almost "gobsmacked" when he answered. So I told him I was "Ian" from T-Mobile and apologised for the poor service we had given him, but was his 'phone working OK now? He, sounding confused, said it was. I replied that was another problem solved and rang off. That is funny, I wonder why "Ian" could not have done that for himself and pondered the probability of "scumbag" really having a female European name.

I'm not an expert on foreign accents but I would put "scumbag" down as male, originating in the arc from Somalia to Pakistan. Good heavens it could be [SIZE=-1]Osama bin Laden himself, at large & pretending to be me[/SIZE]:D

John_Pierpoint · 15 October 2007 at 11:25AM

Has any one had any dealings with the ICO.

I gave them a call; every major company should have a named individual, with the responsibility of overseeing his company's implementation of the Data Protection act.

All I wanted was the name of the person keeping my details safe at "T-Mobile", a company which should have none of my details. It certainly should not be recording my use of one of it 07951......... telephone numbers.

Silly me. The ICO switches telephone enquiries through to some sort of fob off agency. What it seems to boil down to is this:-

Before the ICO will get involved in any way, I must do a full audit of our Identity Fraud problem. This will involve checking my (& Mrs P's) records at the three credit agencies and then writing to the companies, who "scumbag" has had doing credit checks on us. Theoretically each of us should enclose a tenner to each of these stupid companies to cover their expenses. When we have done all this, and sent the evidence to the ICO, they MAY consider taking action.

I bet if I telephoned Her Majesties Revenue and Customs to report someone fiddling their taxes, that government department would jump into action.

John.

I have also had a third attempt to get in touch with someone intelligent at T-Mobile: "No we are not allowed to give out any email addresses, not even generic ones like support@..........., even in the middle of a postal strike!"

saucy77 · 24 October 2007 at 8:33AM

I'm not sure on what angle you should approach next...
My OH says take it to a solicitor, which I spose would be worth a try. You could try taking them to court to gain some sort of compensation from them for causing you distress.

And maybe then that will make T-mobile sit up and listen. If the thought of solicitors scares you, then try Citizen's Advice first, they will be able to point you in the right direction of who to contact.

John_Pierpoint · 9 November 2007 at 6:25AM

Yesterday, I used the "Egg Money" card to buy 70 GBP of carbon saving (and hopefully money saving

) gizmos over the internet. The card did not bounce:T
The real result was with "T-Mobile". Yes there is some intelligent life there, you just have to keep trying. On my fourth attempt, I managed to discover that there is a complaints procedure, seemingly run by one of the directors.
(So if you have a similar problem, check out the list of directors and see if you can get in touch with any of them) and this coupled with my letter to the "head of security" has generated a phone call and letter from a very reasonable person in the hogwash, woops sorry, the Public Relations department:
They have taken my name and address out of their system and the hookey phone now owned by "scumbag", or the poor fool he sold it to, is now registered in the name of someone senior in the complaints/security department.

I think I will continue to monitor this phone for the next few weeks and resist the temptation to publish its number, to see if T-Mobile can get a grip on the situation. My Plan B had been to recruit friends with free minutes/texts, possibly with help from some moneysaving experts, and see if we could mount a "denial of service" attack on "my" 'phone. I had a feeling that if scumbag had his phone jammed with texts and calls asking him to get in touch, arriving at inconvenient times of the day and night, he might have been persuaded to re-register it.

"May you live in interesting times" as the old chinese curse goes.

:beer:
John

Credit Card Rip-offs At Xmas

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