SCAM CALLS ever since moving to O2 network!!!

[Crowbar]

In all my many many years of owning a mobile phone, I've been very careful with my phone number and I've NEVER had any SCAM calls. The very DAY, we were sold off to O2 I start to get SCAM calls from Manchester pretty much every other day from a Manchester number. Coincidence? 😡

[Hefeydd]

The same has happened to me as well in getting calls from Manchester, Scotland, Cardiff, Surrey England, and Leicester and they all start at 10:00 and 12:00 every other day. My dad was with Virgin Mobile and he gets spam calls every single day since O2 merged with Virgin Media I have noticed a massive increase in SPAM calls so much that my next upgrade I am seriously thinking about leaving O2 and going to another provider because this taking the you know what know. I've never had spam calls that much but now I am getting about 3 calls per day and I am not happy.

[Hefeydd]

Changing the subject slightly but VM is notorious for spam and scam calls. My landline was changed because I was receiving so many spam and scan calls in a number that I've had for decades that I don't give out to anybody and all of a sudden I was getting loads of spam and scam calls so that asked VM to change my number and I had to report this as nuisance calls to get a Police ref to change my number. One less than a few hours I was receiving calls from people asking for somebody at all hours of the day I complained to VM about this and the person I was speaking to I could tell just couldn't care less.

I worked for BT for five years and I know how the system works regardless of the provider, by law new numbers by law must be held for a minimum of 6 months those numbers must not be put back into circulation and OFCOM can fine the provider for releasing a phone number early. As I've worked in this industry as a technician and an engineer I know how the system works and it wouldn't surprise me if our details were sold and that's why we are getting all these calls on our mobile. Before O2 nerfed with VM I never once received a single spam call and now I am getting about 2-3 per day.

So the question is has VM sold oilur denials…? I don't have another logical explanation I never once had any before the merger so how can VM explain this…? My father has a SIM and phone with Virgin Media and he gets spammed to death on his emails he gets 4-5 calls per day and I've noticed they call around about the same time every day. It's always between 10:00 and 12:00 and from 14:00 and 18:00 I get calls. I had one today and the Cardiff area code was wrong I knew straight away it was a scam call it rang off so fast k didn't have a chance to answer. I always search for the number via reverse lookup tools that I have for work There are several websites where you can do a reverse lookup to check the number how many times it has been searched and if there are any complaints against the number. I then block the numbed and all those are logged on your phone. What scammer use is a soeficipieve of hardware and software that can mask their number and they could be calling from Indoa which is where 99.9% of the scam and phishing calls come from. They could be calling from India and the number says Leicester England and you're none the wiser.

[dieseldog57]

Oh yes im getting these calls daily!! I ported my Number from a network and very rarely had calls like this!! Now I play with them, when they offer me the latest iPhone I say yeah go on then, give them random Names, tell them my bank account is 123456 and generally pass the phone round work. If they want to waste my time I can certainly waste there’s!! 

[Murff]

Hi Sabrina

I keep getting this text 

*Be alert to fraud* NEVER share this code, including with O2 staff. Help us protect your O2 account. To retrieve your My O2 account, enter code 483417.

Then a call within seconds offering discounts on O2 

Scam I presume but texts look genuine even come with O2 no number at top of texts 

I think call is scam but the text?? 

Any ideas

[Steven_L]

Hi Murff,

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums.
I’m sorry to hear of the issues that you’re having and this does sound a bit concerning, please could you get in touch with O2 using the methods here and they will be able to investigate this further for you.

Kind Regards,

Steven_L

[goslow]

This sounds like the format for a smishing scam

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/o2-customers-targeted-by-fake-discount-calls-aXiUF7A5oMc0

https://www.o2.co.uk/inspiration/the-drop/smishing

The scammer initiates a password reset for your O2 account/number. As part of that process O2 sends you a text with a one-time passcode on it.

Shortly after, you receive a call from the scammer pretending to be O2 and offering you a fantastic 'discount'.

The scammer says that they need the code on the SMS to process the discount for you.

Do not ever give out any such code.

If you give the scammer the code it will be used to carry out a password reset on your account which will allow the scammer to gain access.

From there they will typically order an expensive phone, charged to your account, but delivered to a third-party address.

Often the first the customer knows about this is when they fail to receive any promised O2 discounts and instead they find they have been charged for an expensive phone that they have not received.

[Billr1232]

I agree with what you've said.

I've been with Virgin for 5 years with NO spam calls. On 21st July my contract switched to o2 & guess what. Within 24 hours I received my very 1st spam call saying they were from o2 offering a 30% discount on my bill. With over 18 mobile phone providers in the UK what was the likelihood they could pick the correct one & call me. Coincidence? Certainly not! Has o2 database been hacked? Not at all happy!

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post @Billr1232, and I'm sorry to hear of the scam calls you've been in receipt of, since the switch to O2.

Do please reach out to them directly to report this, and they'll be best placed to assist you further. 

For the methods of contact available, please follow this link - https://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[peterkay]

Same for us. We have two Virgin phones and since the migration my wife's phone gets several calls a week and her number is not published or shared anywhere, whereas my phone which I've had the same number for 20+ years has not had any spam callers.  She's just had two back to back calls offering a special O2 deal. Callers english was so poor I couldn't understand them. Told them to email to the address they should have on the account. I don't expect to hear anything !

[Pinkyman5155]

I have had two scam calls from O2 in the last hour, both from different numbers, how have the scammers got my information from virgin?