HELP!!!!! Stolen phone call charges

bandraoi

Was there a call credit limit on the phone?

I suggest she argues that liability under the contract is limited to that amount.

gsmmad

If you have insurance just claim off insurance there is no need for an argument ....

If you can prove that you called at a certain time but the calls lasted till a later time which would be a fault on there behalf

wantmemoney

International numbers have been used to defraud the public for a number of years.
They were originally programmed into illegal internet dialler software.

Here's a list that were reported to Icstis. (for what good that did)
http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs/ocpinternational.pdf
Despite Icstis and Ofcom being aware of the problem, BT and the other fixed line billing companies were allowed to continue billing them.

With the event of broadband and the decrease in dial-up internet the problem largely disappeared from fixed line bills.

It now appears to have moved on to mobile phones.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/6234785.stm
The operator says that there is a system in place to alert them to unusual call patterns, which raises 10,000 cases daily in the UK alone.

Now if a criminal gang only obtained 100 stolen mobiles and assuming the average fraudulent bill was £500.
fraud = 100 x £500 = £50,000 daily

That would be typically shared between the crooks (a company registered in the BVI for example). The UK mobile operator. The foreign telecom company that owns the telephone numbers.

The same problem exists in other countries

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/customers-pay-for-lost-cell-calls/20051105184409990001
In Chicago, Lauren Ortosky didn't know her cell phone had been stolen until she was charged $4,000 for calls to Europe and Africa. Her mother called the provider, T-Mobile.
"They said, 'Listen honey, we see this all the time. Just pay it and be more careful next time,'" says Maureen Ortosky.

So why don't the police in the UK investigate this type of fraud and why doesn't Ofcom bar the numbers when they receive repeat complaints against the same numbers?
I suspect it's for the same reasons given in the US.

By law, if you lose your credit card, your liability is limited to just $50. But the same laws don't apply to cell phones — and cell phone companies like it that way.
Geoff Brown of the California Public Utilities Commission pushed hard for a cell phone customers' bill of rights. He was defeated, he says, by a politically powerful industry.
"They want no regulation. I was disgusted by the pressure," Brown says. "But I understood where it was coming from — enormous financial contributions that are made to politicians."
John Walls speaks for the cell phone industry, which, he says, serves consumers well without regulation.

Apex_2

Rockingit wrote: »

Basically, yes to all of the above. She reported it within 19 hrs of the loss and has a full itemisation which even shows that some calls continued for about 2hrs after she reported it. They are all overseas calls, mostly Hungary and Romania.

The handset insurance stipulates a 24hr window of 'NOTICING THE LOSS' which actually leaves that open to interpretation, and the general T's & C's also make reference to 'unauthorised' calls which also leaves open the issue of on who's authority.

But the main point here is SURELY there must be credit traps within their accounting systems for their own credit control, so how on earth did they not trap an account which for the last 18mths has spent about £30 per month suddenly accrueing £700 of overseas calls in basically 12 hours???

What is making the situation worse for her is that the only point of reference with O2 is their Indian call centre, and she is Mexican, so despite very good english the difficulties in accents etc just make the communication near impossible, especially when trying to get stroppy!!

O2 iirc do not operate any and i mean any overseas call centres for first line customer care, they are based in South Yorkshire, Cardiff, Preston Brook and Glasgow

Apex_2

bandraoi wrote: »

Was there a call credit limit on the phone?

I suggest she argues that liability under the contract is limited to that amount.

There are no credit limits as such applied to O2 accounts, there use to be but due to a number of customer complaints they no longer have it in place

bandraoi

I have an O2 account (through Carphone Warehouse) and it very definitley has a call credit limit in place. It started at £50, they increased it to £150 after 3 months and I promptly had them reduce it back down.

john1

Some time in the past I read a Guardian / Observer article regarding a similar case, but I cannot find it on their www site. However the basis of the article was that the phone company has a “Duty of Care” to its customers. As such it should have suitable software facilities in place to detect unusual call patterns and prevent fraud.

The conclusion of the article AFAIR was basically that if you challenge the phone company re neglect of “Duty of Care” to its client and initiate small claims court proccedings they will pay up and not defend. Somewhat like excessive bank charges