Mobile phone contract upgrade - yet another scam?

moontan

Hi, at 12:30pm I was contacted by someone saying they are calling from Carphone Warehouse and they would like to upgrade my contract. The noise in the background sounded like a very busy call centre. As I am not a Carphone Warehouse customer I was curious why another company would want to upgrade my contract with O2. I was told they are ALLOWED. Strange use of word - and doesn't make sense. The call came from 0203 740 4960. Could not fight my curiosity - and called back. The phone didn't even had a chance to ring - the call was picked up immediately (by a different person) - who immediately said 'hello, could I speak to (my full first name)'. She proceeded telling me the same intention, except this time it was Currys. I said 'that's odd - since it's me who is calling you'. The women sounded a bit taken aback/alarmed. She asked why am i calling [this] number. I told her that I was curious about the offer I just received - and asked her to repeat the company name that was offering the contract upgrade. She paused - and then hung up.

I had my phone (and contract) upgraded back in September, by the way.

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I am looking for job. Every time I start applying for jobs, the number of junk mail goes sky-high. I am also inundated by texts and calls. Is there any way to tell if a job description is not genuine, apart from very obvious? Does anyone know what websites are mostly used to post these?

Ian011

Carphone and Currys are the same company these days.

Some independant retailers can perform upgrades on existing contracts with a variety of mobile providers but you may lose some of the features of your previous contract. Additionally, any insurance you previously took out elsewhere will no longer apply to the new purchase.

When it comes to purchasing anything at all, never deal with anyone who calls you out of the blue. It may or may not be genuine. It may be a scammer. CLI can be faked so never take that as proof of who is calling. Even if the call is genuine, the deal may not be suitable for you or there may be better deals elsewhere.

With no new customers for mobile phones, providers and retailers can expand only by poaching each others customers. Do your own research and then approach them when you want to buy.

Sometimes an offered 'upgrade' is no such thing. They sell you a new contract with a new number and may 'forget' to tell you that you will need to arrange to move the number, or otherwise cancel the old contract, else you'll be paying for two contracts.

You mention you have already upgraded with your provider a few months ago. It may be that Carphone schedule an annual call around the time they think you are eligible to upgrade in the hope of snagging you as a customer. Should you have taken up their offer you may well have found yourself with two contracts.