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O2 and EE customers urged to check accounts as hundreds hit by African phone call scam
EE and O2 mobile customers are being urged to check their accounts for unexpected payments by consumer experts after hundreds of users have been stung by an African phone scam.
Users report being inundated with dozens of calls over the weekend from numbers appearing to be from the likes of Botswana, Cape Verde, and Guinea.
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But every time users block one number, scammers simply ring back using a different one.
Similar so-called "wangiri" scams sees fraudsters ring from international numbers and then hang up in an attempt to trick users into calling back their pricey premium rate numbers.
An O2 customer told us he'd had £3.32 in cash taken from his account (see the box below) after answering one of the calls and ringing the number back - but EE says none of its customers has been debited.
EE believes fewer than 50 customers are affected and it says there's been no data breach its end.
'I received more than 60 calls'
ONE O2 customer, 22-year-old Matthew Wellfair (pictured) from Medway in Kent, says he received more than 60 calls this Saturday and Sunday from a number listed in Guinea.
The retail worker told The Sun: “I started receiving calls from random numbers from Africa and they kept happening every five minutes.
“I’d started to block the number but then each time they would call from a different line.
“When I called O2 it said it had hundreds of customers ringing about the same thing.”
Matthew says he was charged £3.32 after answering some of the calls and ringing one of the numbers back - but adds that O2 has promised to refund this within seven days.
'I've had more than 50 calls'
Another The Sun reader says he's received about 50 calls between Saturday and this morning.
Cameron Elkington from Maidstone in Kent says the majority of calls have been from Guinea but he even had one this morning from Cape Verde.
The 27-year-old carpenter told The Sun: "It's been a big nuisance, my phone hasn't stopped ringing. It's been going off all through the night - even at three in the morning.
"I just don't know how they got my number."
Cameron says he hasn't answered any of the calls and when he rung one back it went straight to answerphone. But he's checked his O2 account and he hasn't been charged.
He's also tried to block the calls but they keep coming through with a different number every time.
The Sun has also asked O2 what's happened, how scammers have got hold of people's mobile numbers, and how many customers are affected.
We'll update this story as soon as we get a response, but O2 says on Twitter that this isn't a data breach.
EE has 31million users in total across its mobile and broadband network, while O2 has around 10million pay-monthly users.
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'It's getting out of hand'
One O2 customer tweeted: "@O2 scam calls from Guinea started on my son's phone about half hour ago.
"Constant calling interfering with his use of the phone. What exactly are you doing to fix this and how did they get the numbers of so many O2 customers? Can’t keep blocking different numbers all day!"
Another wrote: "@O2 a lot of people have been experiencing this, including me, which is getting out of hand. How can we stop these calls? #guinea #scamcalls"
Someone else added: "@O2 my friend is being called 40 times a day by scam numbers in Africa. Your live chat has been entirely useless and keeps cutting her off. Fix this now."
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Another O2 customer also reports receiving more than 60 calls. "@O2 my daughter has now received over 60 calls from Guinea all different numbers.
"Reported to O2 and told to block and adjust do not disturb setting to contacts only. Calls still happening. This is a huge security breech what are you doing about it?"
Someone else added: "Ugh, getting so many calls from Guinea trying that old wangiri scam. Seems thousands of other O2 customers are too. Sort it out @O2."
'I can't get them to stop'
EE customers report the same. One user wrote "@EE it looks like the Guinea phone call spam is happening with your network too.
"I've had 13 missed calls from them, all from different numbers, so blocking them is pointless. Surely this a data breach? #o2spam #eespam #guineaspam"
Another user wrote: @EE hi! I keep getting loads of calls from Guinea and it’s very annoying, each one being a different number. What can I do to stop these?"
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A third customer added: "Anyone else having loads of calls from @Guinea? Had loads, it’s an @O2 issue apparently but affecting other networks! I’ve ported away to @EE recently from O2 but still getting them."
Another added: "Over the past 48 hours been receiving a large number of nuisance calls from Guyana, Botswana and Guinea on @EE - anyone else been getting that/anyone know how to turn off incoming international calls?"
What should I do if I've been scammed?
IF you've racked up charges on your mobile account without your consent, report it to your network and check your account in the first instance.
If it doesn't repond or it doesn't offer to refund charges then you can report it to one of the mobile ombudsman.
Which ombudsman you use depends on which one your provider has signed up to.
But it will either be the or the .
You should also report scams to
The Sun has only seen reports over the weekend from EE and O2 customers - we couldn't see Three or Vodafone users saying the same although both providers have warned of wangiri scams in the past.
Experts advise customers to check accounts if they receive strange phone calls or think they may be a victim of a scam.
An EE spokesperson said: “A very small number of our customers have contacted us about nuisance calls from international numbers this weekend.
"We’ve advised them to block the numbers and share them with us so we can investigate. Our systems haven’t been compromised in any way.”
More on bills
It comes as EE customers have been hit with a raft of price hikes this year, including a 2.7 per cent increase for newer mobile users, and a 2.4 per cent hike for those who've been with the mobile giant for more than five years.
It also hiked the price of out-of-contract calls and texts for millions of customers.
Meanwhile O2 upped prices by 2.5 per cent this year.
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