Mobile phone insurance scam

ant-_2

same people called me yesterday, they knew i had just bought an iphone from the carphone warehouse and i need to activate my insurance, as soon as he asked for my name i started asking them questions instead, my paranoia is now paying off, i never give details to anyone that calls me, not even a name. The guy was rude and stupid, hung up quite quickly. Its a pity it was a blocked number, as i would have enjoyed a bit of creative revenge with these scamers

it is only because carphone warehouse phone numbers are in bulk that they know anything about you, and they are just good at asking you the questions. I immediately went to the carphone warehouse branch told them to warn customers. I hope they do

chibo82

I got a call too. I recently got the iphone. Thanks to this thread, I was prepared to not go ahead with this.

V.A.L.I.S

I need to be really careful what I say here. I did, many months ago, for a very brief time work in one of these places. I have experiance in sales and when walking past the banner saying 'pay you months rent in a week' i thought i'd pop along for an interview. In the interview the boss really didnt let up too much about what the job consisted of but when i started there i started fishing around asking questions. I am, by nature very inquisitive and always like to know the in's and out's of what i do. Right, we were selling 'Warranties' not insurance (first oddity) strictly not insurance. The only saving grace i could fathom was that under no circumstances we were calling from the CPW. We were told to let them think that if they must but if directly asked we were Fone Protect (some of you may have come accross them) The pitch was a well constucted set of Smake and mirrior sales techniques.
The numbers we sourced in the same methods as explained in earlier posts, obtaining prefix's from the business' undercover agents in CPW and fones4u.

As you can imagine i worked here for a week before fleeing! didnt evern collect my pay. just wanted away form these people.

The thing that annoyed me the most is that they were, to a certain degree legitimate. They were providing a service. For £79 of your hard earned cash you were getting:

An amaturish contract through your door saying you were coverd for everything except from loss.

The boss at the back of the small sales room, hacking away at your phone.

If your phone, after being surenderd to these crooks was beyond repair. You get a brand new phone, second hand from E-Bay! how nice of them!

The problem with these guys is that it was a businsess. They had a service. They just made it appear something that i wasnt. Through load mouthed 18 year old Chavs. bulling people into what they though was a truly professional service....Hang on ill just pass you over to our finance department (child on right)...Right ill just put you through too quality control (child on left)

It was clever, but so so so wrong. the people that do this are absoulte !!!!!!!s, and to think that i was hoodwinked into it. I just put the phone down and walked out.

By the way this company is based in Swansea. I know at least four others in the area that have the same scheme. Some more evil than others but all pulling the same scam.

If you hear a Welsh accent just hang up

I hope this has helped.........

lilitu93

As people who are following the iPhone specific thread at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1034815 know, I got caught by one of these scams. They convinced me they were O2's insurance, which is why I signed up for it. Of course, I haven't received anything from them and am out £99.

I'm planning to contact Watchdog this evening and send them links to the two threads on here covering it and the Register article (and point out it's 3 years old). Their new series has just started, and this is the kind of story that they like to follow. If you were caught by this scam, you should consider contacting them as well, even if it was a while back, since that will make them more likely to

Here's the URL to contact them: http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

NotTheOrganGrinder

On Saturday my wife and I bought new mobiles from the Carphone Warehouse, and I took the insurance out on mine. In the evening I got a call from someone who told me due to a change in Underwriter they were needed to take the payment details again. I was getting ready to go out, and shouting at the 3 year old to stop kicking the cat, so I handed over the details without thinking.... Now £109.99 down. It clicked this afternoon it was dodgy when they tried to get me and my wife a second time, so cancelled the card and told the bank all about it. Done on Maestro so little chance of getting it back, but at least I found out before they decided to try emptying the account I suppose. Compared to the other posts, they guy didn't let on it was from a different company, so was outright scamming, rather pretending to offer a better deal or anything. The bank are investigating for me (HSBC, anyone had any luck with them doing this for them?) but may as well write it off, ho-hum :wall:

The payment came out as DLC Global, not much on google apart from some expired job postings in Swansea, and could be viable as the guy (Steve) who phoned was Welsh ( that's not an attack on the Welsh though ). The phone number is never answered, I bet when I get my phone bill, the number is a £10/min line to a recording of a phone ringing :eek:

Yahoo however came up trumps though - http://www.ukdata.com/numbers/06662301.html, wonder how long they will hang around

Lets be careful out there...

NTOG.

gemmy_3

my son also got a o2 contract phone from cpw and is being pestered by these people. i have tried to phone the number and it never gets answered also been in touch with cpw and o2 who have said that they know about these people. we have also cancelled the bank card as he gave them his details to them. lucky for him he told them no money was in the bank till wed so as soon as we found out about this scam i cancelled the card but they are still pestering him about insurance. he has now take out the insurance with o2 themselves. today he has recieved 2 phones from these people when asked to stop calling the phone one lady said why, give me a good reason to stop so they are becoming quite annoying now

binkadv

I got a phone last february from CPW I had a very ill 3 month old and alot of stress resulting. When they called me I just handed over my details without thinking as I presumed it was from the proper insurance company (certainly sounded quite sincere) and to be fair when my phone broke they exchanged it for a brand new one in a sealed box with everything sealed correctly.

I think the original Idea for this may have been honest. Just gone a bit wayward since.

mutley99_2

Hi

Wish I had of done a bit research before taking out insurance then maybes I would not be posting here with a sinking feeling that I have been scammed.

I took out a policy with a company called Fone Medic, usually I do my homework on financial products but was blindsighted on this occassion and thought they sounded legit and the guy I spoke to seemed quite pleasant and professional.

Now that I have had to claim I am having problems contacting the company and have a really bad feeling I have been scammed, to be scammed out of £70 for a policy is sickening enough but to lose a handset which would cost £300 to replace is gutting.

Oh and like the above post, this company were from Swansea, probably the same scammers.

I have contacted the FSA and they are not registered on their database so it looks like one moment of weakness has put me at a great loss.

Car Phone Warehouse should enclose information warning customers of these companies, it may seem obvious to some but to others such as myself on this occassion it is possible to get sucked in.

Oh and like the above post, this company were also based in Swansea....

souper_2

Hi,

The other thread discussing this (which I posted in) has now been deleted I think ????

I went to check it because I had subscribed to it (I posted my story about being conned) because the e-mail I received said the last poster was a user called 'colourbox', a company name that I had implicated in the scam (I ran a WHOIS on the domain name 'capital-plus.info' at the bottom of my dodgy 'policy' letter and those details came back).

This is all very shady now I didn't realise entire threads with 20+ posts could just be zapped like that, and I'd be really interested in what 'colourbox' has to say about the whole thing.

stype

I purchased an iPhone from CPW after my old phone was pickpocketed.
Took out insurance in store.

The very next day, someone called saying that because I'd partially purchased my phone, they were going to offset that cost by lowering my insurance amount by half. I was busy and they provided me with a lot of my existing details, just asking for 'confirmation' here and there.

Checked my account two days later to find £109.99 taken by direct debit to DLC Global in Swansea. At no time had I approved a lump sum payment. Another day later I received a 'warranty certificate' which looked to be clip art on a sheet of yellow card. I called the number listed in the small print, had rather angry words with the guy on the phone and eventually they sent a cheque back for the full amount.

THERE IS A CANCELLATION CLAUSE!! USE IT!! If you don't call and cancel with them within 14 days you forfeit £30, but that's better than £109.99
Call the number - I'm sure they're counting on people thinking they've been duped and not bothering.