Replace mobile number on O2 after banking impersonation scam?

ic

My mother in law has been the victim of a banking impersonation scam, with crooks managing to gain access to her bank account and stealing half her cash before fraud detection kicked in and blocked any more attempts.  Mercifully it sounds like the bank will be returning what has been lost.

We're now very conscious that her current pay monthly O2 mobile number is known as vulnerable, with all her details attached - so we fear she'll be targeted again in the future.

Is it possible for us to port in from another network to the same account for a second time?  We'd like to set up a new number with another network, then port it in after a month replacing the existing vulnerable number.  Otherwise, can O2 simply replace the existing number, or help in the switcher-er-oo between old and new numbers without the need to cancel accounts?  Her existing contract is only a couple of months old so we don't want to be cancelling it or running an additional account in parallel.

flaneurs_lobster

Yes you can PAC into an account 2 or more times. 

Might be worth asking O2 if they have a procedure for issuing a new number to an existing contract - can't be the first time this has been asked/happened.

Would save you the hassle (and £) of activating an unwanted SIM.

ic

Thanks - that's good to hear.  I'm just thinking of getting a lebara sim for a few pound a month, then transferring in - it'd just give us a period to update numbers against the myriad of accounts, companies and people before losing the old for good.

Frozen_up_north

I would speak to O2, they will have had similar situations like this before and should be able to change the number without much trouble.

PHK

Yes, O2 can do a number change. 

steven141

Usually mobile networks change the number for free for things like this.

ic

We've decided to go with getting a second sim and porting after a period of dual-running.  She's obtained an esim from O2 so that she can have the second physical sim from lebara.  It's only £1 a month for a 7 months, so gives us chance to update everybody who needs to know about a number change knows before we merge the two sims.

Thanks all  

MyRealNameToo

O2 will change the number for free up to once a year for any reason, they may charge if its more frequent but that depends on the reasons why you are asking for a change. 

I would speak to O2 anyway because using the PAC code would normally result in the account being closed but you dont want it closed you just want a new number assigned.