O2 'unable' to remove fraudulent hard search from my credit report

arealltheusernamestaken

Summary: I was a victim of fraud, I flagged it to O2 before they came to financial loss, but they say they can't remove the fraudulent hard search carried out on my credit file b/c they can't find the fraudulent account it relates to. What can I do?

Longer explanation:

I was a victim of identity theft. An employer was hacked, along with about a decade of my records. Every detail a fraudster would need to create (or try to create -- I spent a tremendous amount of time squashing frauds before they got far) loads of bank accounts, mobile phone contracts, etc.

One of the fraudsters' tricks was to use a third-party phone site with lax controls (it allowed them to use fraudulent bank accounts I'd caught and closed weeks earlier) to get contracts and iPhones from big mobile phone companies. The first successful attempt was with Vodafone -- an iPhone 14 arrived at my address without me ordering one, then later in the day a scammer arrived pretending to be from the delivery co. to pick up the 'mistaken' delivery earlier. Luckily I realised it was a scam (he had a different company uniform on from the guy earlier) and didn't give it to him. Then I checked my credit reports to see if I was about to get some more unrequested iPhones...

Bingo! I found an O2 hard search alongside a Vodafone one the day before. So after calling Vodafone (who were helpful throughout -- hats off to them) I called O2 to ensure they didn't send the phone. O2 duly cancelled the order and said thanks for saving them from financial loss. I asked them to report it to Action Fraud (they did not) and to remove the hard search from my record (they did not).

Since then (this happened in June) I have been regularly calling/emailing various departments at O2, including the fraud dept, to get this damaging, *fraudulent* hard search removed from my credit record. But while some of those on the phone want to help, they can't find the account in order to deal with the issue. Even without the account number (which only the fraudster has) they can't find it under my name or address. It seems my prompt action may have deleted the account before a long-term record existed.

This seems like a perfectly good excuse for a call centre person who has no powers to dig deep into all the hard searches O2 conducted that day to find the one they did for me. But the company will definitely have those records so *someone* must be able to find it and remove it.

But how do I force them to do that? I was the victim here and I did them a favour.

MorningcoffeeIV

Raise a formal complaint.

But also don't sweat it.  A single utility search will have no impact on you.

penners324

Why haven't you got a Cifas protection in place?

arealltheusernamestaken

penners324 said:

Why haven't you got a Cifas protection in place?

I do have CIFAS protection in place but this happened during the first wave of frauds in my name, during which I had never even heard of it. Obviously I have since, though it is not bulletproof -- there have been frauds in my name since. Even if I had had it at the time, dodgy online phone shops that are willing to accept the details of closed bank accounts (a fraudulent account the bank caught before it was even operational) to set up contracts with mobile providers are probably not too bothered about a CIFAS flag.

arealltheusernamestaken

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Raise a formal complaint.

But also don't sweat it.  A single utility search will have no impact on you.

Thank you. A good idea. Needless to say, they have not exactly helped me down that route and -- in keeping with the 'system says no' approach thus far -- would like an account number of course. But putting it in a letter would at least be cathartic.

I do realise the single search is not that damaging, but it's still infuriating that I can go out of my way to save them from losing a £1K+ phone and a lot of time/hassle, and they do nothing to save me from penalty. Vodafone did that, and reported it to Action Fraud, in a single phone call. Everyone happy.

Anyway, 'write to O2 to complain (again)' has been on my to do list for too long already. You've motivated me to finally do it and just avoid ever dealing with them again.

sourcrates

When did all this happen?

Hard searches, fraudulent or otherwise, are automatically removed from your file after 12 months anyway.

EnPointe

arealltheusernamestaken said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Raise a formal complaint.

But also don't sweat it.  A single utility search will have no impact on you.

Thank you. A good idea. Needless to say, they have not exactly helped me down that route and -- in keeping with the 'system says no' approach thus far -- would like an account number of course. But putting it in a letter would at least be cathartic.

I do realise the single search is not that damaging, but it's still infuriating that I can go out of my way to save them from losing a £1K+ phone and a lot of time/hassle, and they do nothing to save me from penalty. Vodafone did that, and reported it to Action Fraud, in a single phone call. Everyone happy.

Anyway, 'write to O2 to complain (again)' has been on my to do list for too long already. You've motivated me to finally do it and just avoid ever dealing with them again.

what  penalty or loss do you believe you have suffered ? 

arealltheusernamestaken

sourcrates said:

When did all this happen?

Hard searches, fraudulent or otherwise, are automatically removed from your file after 12 months anyway.

About 6 months ago. Yes, in the end that will come sooner than any action by O2. Half-way there already...

arealltheusernamestaken

EnPointe said:

arealltheusernamestaken said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Raise a formal complaint.

But also don't sweat it.  A single utility search will have no impact on you.

Thank you. A good idea. Needless to say, they have not exactly helped me down that route and -- in keeping with the 'system says no' approach thus far -- would like an account number of course. But putting it in a letter would at least be cathartic.

I do realise the single search is not that damaging, but it's still infuriating that I can go out of my way to save them from losing a £1K+ phone and a lot of time/hassle, and they do nothing to save me from penalty. Vodafone did that, and reported it to Action Fraud, in a single phone call. Everyone happy.

Anyway, 'write to O2 to complain (again)' has been on my to do list for too long already. You've motivated me to finally do it and just avoid ever dealing with them again.

what  penalty or loss do you believe you have suffered ? 

The hit to my credit rating. However large or small it was, it should not have cost me a single point. I did the right thing. I saved them the cost of the most expensive phone they sold at the time. They did nothing for me.

Also, worth noting that the collective hit to my credit rating from the tsunami of hard searches that happened initially (bank accounts, mobile accounts, etc... all created either before I was aware of them or before I had learned all the steps you need to take to slow the fraudsters' progress) was significant, even if each individual one was not huge. *All* of those organisations wiped the hard searches from my record except O2.

debsy42

The agents you have been speaking with in the call centre may have given minimal levels of access and may not be able to see inactive or deleted accounts/orders on their systems. Needs someone with the required level of access and a good knowledge of searching on a customer database (which is not always easy). For good record keeping accounts/orders are not usually deleted but may be in a status that not everyone can view. Good luck, hope you managed to get this resolved.

arealltheusernamestaken

debsy42 said:

The agents you have been speaking with in the call centre may have given minimal levels of access and may not be able to see inactive or deleted accounts/orders on their systems. Needs someone with the required level of access and a good knowledge of searching on a customer database (which is not always easy). For good record keeping accounts/orders are not usually deleted but may be in a status that not everyone can view. Good luck, hope you managed to get this resolved.

Exactly. You've hit the nail on the head! The same applied to other mobile providers where I had the same issue. In each case they were able to escalate it to someone who had the necessary access if they did not. In O2s case, no-one at the call centre, or the fraud team, or any of the teams I spoke to, was able to do that. Without an identifiable account, none of their internal systems would let them do anything at all.

One lady at the call centre really, really tried to help. Got her manager involved and spent 30 mins battling system-says-no nonsense before giving up and apologising. So it wasn't (always) a lack of willing or knowledge on the part of the people I spoke to.

As you say, some call centre people are entirely constrained by 'the system', especially if they are not in the UK (O2s call centre is in South Africa, though I don't know where their fraud team is since I only managed to get hold of them by message). But it was only at O2 where they had no way whatsoever to escalate things even in the form of an email internally to someone who could help. Their hands were totally tied. Goodness knows what other problems you could have with them with internal processes like that.