Warning of scam!

howsoonisnow

I've just bought a phone and o2 airtime contract with Onestopphoneshop (an online subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse).

Last week I received a call on my new phone from someone claiming to be from Carphone Warehouse's insurance division - this caller called himself Thomas and said the company was called Advance Telecom. My phone comes with 3 months free insurance, and "Thomas" offered me a much reduced premium for the remainder of the year, along with improved terms.

The caller asked for my bank card details "in order to cancel the eisting direct debit and set up a new one" but I refused because the call was from a witheld number. The caller agreed to call me back, which he did. However, this was from a mobile number.

I refused to give my bank card details as I was suspicious on a number of grounds - (1) the call was from a mobile number (excuse: "we work from mobiles") (2) for a direct debit one's switch for maestro number is not needed - only a/c and sort code. (3) Anyway, if genuine they would already have the necessary bank details, and would be able to change the existing d/d without cancelling it (4) the caller asked me to allocate a 4 digit PIN -obviously hoping I'd choose the one used with my maestro card. (5) the caller only knew I was a Carphone warehouse customer - he refered to "whatever branch you bought the phone from" and did not know it was an interweb tranasction. I said that I would not give my card details over the phone and asked for the deal to be put to me in writing. This was refused on the grounds that it was such a cheap deal they had to save all possible costs. The caller ended by giving an 0870 number for further contact (08701 996385). The mobile number he called from was 07877 670133. Needless to say neither of these numbers connects to a live human being, and googling "advance telecom" does not produce any results relating to mobile phone insurance.

I have reported this matter to Onestopphoneshop who confirm that their insurer is called New Technology Insurance. I have also expressed concern at (some) of my details being leaked outside their company. I have also reported the incident to the police. Beware of this and similar scams.

redux

It may be that OSPS have not released any details, and the call may be entirely speculative.

Apparently there are databases available that show when certain blocks of numbers are released to use. Some dealers use these to call up after about 11 months and offer upgrades without admitting until asked that they are not actually from the network; most hang up when you say you've never heard of them. This is the first time I've heard of such an early attempt at social engineering.

HugoSP

A day after I activated a Vodafone PAYG sim card I received a call from some idiod wanting to discuss my contract with him.

I was on a roof at the time and was not best please so I said "erm no thankyou - don't want to know"

How he got my number god only knows - maybe I should report it to Vodafone

M00NST0NE

My son is a victim of this scam. He bought a phone from Carphone Warehouse and the next day got a call offering him a better deal on insurance. He thought it was CPW calling him, and fell for the scam hook, line and sinker.

His phone has just been stolen and is not insured becuse the scammers cancelled his insurance with the Carphone warehouse within 24 hours of his phone being activated.

more about the scam here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/20/cpw_phone_insurance

CPW know that because they buy these numbers in blocks it leaves their customers open to this, but my son was given no warning by them, nor did they query with him when the insurance was cancelled. By then of course it was too late to do anything about the £70 the scammers took from his account but it would at least have alerted him to the fact that he no longer had insurance on his phone.

In one way he is lucky that they did not clear his account out. I am amazed that he fell for it because he is usually so savvy but they were very plausible.

ziggy75

Hope this helps.

I recently moved over to O2, and thought that registering my phone/sim was a good idea, as it got me an extra £2.50 credit. Within hours I received 3 phone calls. I answered none of them as I didn't recognise the number. When I got homes I checked, and found the country code was Nigeria!

We all know what this means....SCAM.

Just incase you are going to register your O2 phone/sim, be prepared for a few calls...

nick1234

omg i got my phone last week from e2save and got the same call (im on o2). my deal inc 3 months free insurance and it seemed as if they were just asking if i wanted to extent it? im gona phone up the number given on the e2save website now and ask to cancel the insurance.

markgregory

as per how soon is now....
I can confirm that these scammers will get your new mobile phone number, ask for your bank details and then extract money.no sign of the policy yet? They say they are using foneguard. I am amazed that the sales reps at phones 4 u don't explain this to new customers. I too thought i was savvy. more like numpty... dfwb when i wise up
So, the moral of the story is, don't give out your details to anyone, not matter how tempting the discount or how legit they sound. Just going to catch a train to swansea to get my money back.

Ninja_Starfish

A distressed customer came in to a P4U shop.
She got a phone call from a company I'll call ABC. They purported to be her P4U insurer told her that they could re-arrange a better deal; if she paid £79.99 in one instalment it would be cheaper than monthly.
She agreed and her account was debited.
When the normal £7.99 a month also came out she went back to the shop, who obviously knew nothing about it.

None of the contact phone numbers for the ABC work, nor do they answer emails.

I did some rooting around at home.

"ABC" has a small website. The company is registered at Companies House and the number quoted on the website is correct. However, they are described as "Civil Engineering". I did a search on their "registered address" and after some tracking it turns out to be a post office in Wales.

Is it legal to have a limited company's registered address as what is obviously a "poste restante" in a small P.O.? It's not an agent like c/o an accountant.

I'd post the info I found out about this company but not sure if I'm allowed to...it's all in the public domain though.