Notice of disconnection and debt collection from O2 but I don't have an account with them

Fluff_meister · 4 November at 9:13PM

Fluff_meister said:

Jon_01 said:

Fluff_meister said:

I have had exactly the same issue. I'm not an O2 customer, but I received a "notice of disconnection" from O2 with an account number on it and a demand for a payment of £33.70. When I phoned them (that was quite the ordeal!) I was told that it was probably fraud, and their "fraud department" would contact me with 48 hours. That was over 2 weeks ago. After a few days I wrote to them (by old-fashioned post) and got no reply. I phoned again a couple of days ago and the person I spoke to confirmed the account number on this mysterious unitemised demand didn't match my phone number (my mobile number is with EE), and that I should phone their "fraud department". The "fraud department" turned out to be the phone number for Police Action Fraud, nothing to do with O2. Needless to say, when I reported it to them I got a reply saying it wasn't a police matter.

As far as I'm aware, the fraud dept isn't 'customer facing', so you're unlikely to get a call from them. This is usually due to the front line agents not being trained in fraud. They just assume that every dept will call customers. (I worked as a fraud investigator for one of the other networks).
Once front line has passed the info to them, they should look into it and put a hold on any action. If that hasn't happened, then contact their exec office.
Not sure why Action Fraud told you that??? They should have logged it and given advice about ID theft?

Thanks for your response. Turned out that while O2 told me - twice - that it was fraud, the debt collection agency (who so far have behaved far more professionally than O2) subsequently told me that O2 had told them it related to an out if contract Virgin bundle, which I cancelled in May. My guess is that they didn't tell O2 I'd cancelled my bundle so they were expecting their monthly £25. If O2 had *told* me that when I phoned them, instead of telling me it was fraudulent, it would have been sorted by now.

As it is, I've wasted hours. O2's complaint procedure suggests using Resolver, which I have, and Resolver have said O2 has ignored them too! So the next step will be the Information Commissioner's Office. It really is unbelievable that O2 seem incapable of replying to me.

Thought an update on this might be of interest to others with this issue - after nearly five months, and taking the case to the Ombudsman (who found in my favour), O2 sent me a letter of apology last week, and have sent me a cheque for £100 by way of compensation, and agreed to remove any poor credit references that they may have caused. This only happened because the Ombudsman told them to resolve this. I had also submitted a request to them to find out what information they had on me - which was very useful. It included, for instance, the sound file of the telephone call where they told me it was fraud and to ignore it (after they vehemently denied they'd said this), and a load of previous statements which I never received because they had got my name wrong, my phone number wrong, and my email address wrong - and "phone and email" were the only options they had to communicate with me (until the letter of disconnection sent by old-fashioned post).