Phone scam?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

amwebby

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 9, 2006
Messages
1,440
Location
Thorpe Bay
Car
CL500
Not sure how they've done this but it is definitely a scam.

In October I returned to my phone to find a missed called from a number I did'n't recognise. It came from abroad so I looked up the country code, 232, to find it originated from Sierra Leone. Figuring it to be a scam I didn't reply to the call and deleted it from my call log but made a note of the number.

This month my bill arrived and there was an item claiming I had called this number for exactly two minutes, costing me £2.72. I phoned O2, who were great and credited the amount, even though it showed to them as me calling the number.

I'm now studying my phone to see how I can block calls from this number and trying to figure out how the hell they did it. Any telco experts out there who might have an idea?
 
Last edited:
fonejacker.jpg



"Helllllo Sir, Congratulations you have won $7600000 Ugandan dollars"
 
I fail to see how they can charge you for a call you never picked up, and there's nothing I'm aware of that the scammers could have used in this situation to cause that charge without some sort of action from yourself.

If you had been roaming that would have been a different matter, but on your home network no incoming call should levy a charge.

Something sounds not quite right with O2's charging scheme there.
 
I agree - I would want to know from O2 how comes there is a charge...
 
As I said, O2 see it as an outgoing call initiated by me. My phone's calls list show this is not the case and they were very quick to refund the charge. I suspect the scam is on the O2 network rather than me.
 
Here's someone else who's had exactly the same thing from the same number.

http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=114981

Forgot to mention the text prior to the phone call. In fact forgot the text as I also deleted that. Maybe that is somehow part of the scam?
 
Last edited:
Nope, still nothing there could initiate a charge for an outgoing call.

To be fair, O2 seem to have some quietly suspect practices - a friend of mine has been refused an upgrade (despite being fully eligible) because he doesn't have a "chip and pin" debit card registered on his account, basically mothballing his account.

(He has elected not to have a debit card on his bank account, preferring to use just a cashcard and internet banking - it's still a fully-featured account, and his bills are still paid by direct debit)

They cannot give any explanation beyond "It's procedure" and refuse to do anything further about it, despite being a perfect customer for 7 years and having never so much as missed a payment. So he's now leaving.
 
New thread probably wouldn't hurt, just to be safe.

What have they done?
 
no chance you slipped the phone into a pocket and it pressed a few buttons like call log and dial???

just saying i get occasional messages from people saying why do you keep phoning me??:eek: when i've forgotten to lock the keypad.

although the sierra leone thing should set off loads of alarm bells might be an innocent explanantion too...

i'd still check your bills like a hawk though
 
Phone is actually in use by my wife, who is in an acute physiotherapy unit and only uses it to receive calls from me. As she currently has only the use of her right arm and is bedridden the "buttons being pressed while in pocket scenario" doesn't scan. Calls log shows no outgoing calls, period.
 
Was it a multimedia message?
Orange sent me a text containing multimedia and when I opened it to see what it was (an advert for their multimedia services) and subsequently deleted it I still was charged by them because in order to display the message my phone downloaded the media as well.

Their customer service (who I have nothing but praise for) refunded me the charge but did say they can't block me recieving these messages or remove me from their own marketting list when they spam everyone with them - but they will refund me again if it happens (actually they refuinded me more than the charge :D)

I guess if Sierra Leone sends you a multimedia message then your phone will try to get the content from them if you open it even if it's just to decide you are going to delete it.
 
To be honest I don't recall if the text was MMS or not. However I have uncovered something weird. I definitely didn't call the number but, immediately after the missed call, there is an outgoing call of 0:00:00 to the number recorded on the phone. I've set up call blocking software on the phone and added that number to the list.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom