Woman devastated after ending up more than £1000 in debt from phone scam

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A woman was left devastated and in hundreds of pounds of debt after falling victim to a phone scam.Lorraine Edwards, 57, was pestered for dozens of payments for mobiles she had never ordered after her husband was tricked into giving away a code which allowed cruel scammers to order devices in her name.Lorraine's ordeal began when she got an email thanking her for the order of a brand new iPhone 14.

Minutes later she received a similar email for another phone. She immediately rang her husband, who is disabled, housebound and suffers from seizures, and asked if he had ordered the devices.She said: “I rang my husband and asked if he had ordered these, he said no, but had spoken to O2 about a discount.“Apparently the person who rang my husband asked if he would like a discount of 30% for being a loyal customer to which he agreed….

He then asked if he could speak to Lorraine Edwards as I am the account holder and my husband explained that I was at work.“He also asked for my email address which my husband wouldn’t give him.

The person on the phone, supposedly from 02, then sent my husband a pin in order to activate the 30% off, which my husband then read back to him and shortly afterwards I received the emails.”On Wednesday, September 6, DPD delivered the two phones, and shortly after the phones arrived Lorraine’s husband received a call from O2 asking for confirmation that the phones had arrived.Lorraine continued: “My husband informed them that we didn’t want them and that we hadn’t ordered them and the person on the phone suggested that we took them to the local post office to which we declined so he said they would arrange to have them collected.“I immediately rang O2 and explained that I hadn’t ordered these.