Pensioner branded 'thief' after falling victim to mobile phone scam

A pensioner nearly lost his savings after being tricked into changing mobile phone plans by a fraudulent cold-caller. Bruce Stanwyck, whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity, fell victim to the scam after a caller claiming to be from O2 told him he could switch to a new contract with reduced monthly payments, from £19 to £12. The day after he accepted the offer, Stanwyck received a message from the provider confirming the purchase of a £1,000 iPhone 16 Pro Max handset.

His efforts to convince O2 that he hadn't ordered the phone and didn't want it were in vain, and it arrived two days later. The telecommunications firm told him it would dispatch a prepaid bag for the phone to be returned in, but instead, someone claiming to be an O2 courier arrived at his door to pick up the unopened device. Stanwyck said he called O2 after realising he hadn't been given a receipt, but was assured the phone had been received. Then, to his surprise, he received a letter from the provider saying it had terminated his contract, referred him to the fraud department and ordered him to pay £1,072.

"Now I am classed as a thief and owe money I don't have for a phone I never wanted and have not got," the perplexed pensioner told The Guardian. "I can't work out how this happened or whether someone from O2 is in on it."

In fact, he had fallen victim to an elaborate scam involving a scammer masquerading as an O2 customer service agent.

Stanwyck was tricked into disclosing a "one-time authorisation code" that allowed the fraudster to access his account and order the iPhone. A fake courier was dispatched to recover the device once it had been delivered.

O2 have since acknowledged the circumstances of the incident and wiped the debt, cancelled the credit agreement arranged by the fraudsters and closed its case against Stanwyck.

"We always aim to take swift action whenever fraud is reported to us, and we apologise that in this case it took longer than it should have done," a spokesperson for the provider said.

"We urge customers to be vigilant if they receive a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from O2, and remember that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Marina Gibbs, policy director for networks and communications at the regulator Ofcom, added: "Customers endure a barrage of scam calls, and when people get caught out, the consequences can be devastating.

"The work we've collectively already done has led to 1m calls a day being blocked, but we're always looking for new ways to shore up our defences in the fight against fraud."