Amid the cost of living crisis, criminals are exploiting people's hardships in a bid to get their hands on their money.
According to Vouchers.co.uk findings, people could be at risk of losing around £1,000 in a new mobile phone scam. According to O2’s customer service forum, many customers received phone calls from scammers in August, claiming to offer a 40% discount.
One unlucky customer from Ireland answered the call, in which the criminal was offering the discount and needed to verify her identity to apply the discount to her account. He claimed O2 would send a security code which she would need to repeat.
READ MORE: Cost of living discount worth £2,000 many may not know about
Little did the victim know that this code would be from the real O2 and would be the security code the scammer needed to access her account. However luck was on her side, as she told The Impartial Reporter.
O2 managed to lock the scammer out of the account before they helped themselves to a brand new iPhone or similar - if not, she could have lost out on £1,049.
Mitchell Baxter from Vouchers.co.uk told the ECHO: “With the cost of living crisis putting millions of Brits out of pocket, more are likely to fall for circulating scams that are aiming to exploit the vulnerable.
“The best advice we can give is if the offer seems too good to be true, it usually is. To check an offer’s authenticity, close down the application whether it be a call or a text and access the relevant account on a different device. If your offer is valid, the customer service team at whichever business will be able to verify this or confirm if it’s a scam.”
O2 says it will never ask customers for one-time passcodes, passwords and PINs, or personal information like your bank details. If you receive a call or text and have any doubts, give O2 a call on 202 from your mobile, or on 0344 809 0202.
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