To think my elderly DM is being scammed via O2?

Can you get her on a pay as you go (you can top it up as and when) and stop her DD and negotiate a payment agreement.

I went away for a few days and when I came back home my phone didn't automatically connect back on to my home WiFi. So all my whatsapping, Wordling, internet, Mumsnet etc., every day was chomping through my data.

I have a cap and I got a message to say I had used my monthly allowance and data usage would be charged for at such and such rate.

I generally now have my mobile data option turned off to avoid it happening again.

It doesn't sound like there is any way to get the mum to be able to navigate the physical process or the admin of changing a sim card. Coping with a relative with dementia is so hard when you're nearby I can't imagine how difficult it must be from another country

Get her a new Sim and cut off O2? Lots of cheap no contract sims like GiffGaff, Lebara, Tesco mobile.

Ideally, yes, I agree they should but I don't think O2 offer a specific one and I don't know how they could administer it. Unlike all the utilities, which do offer a way of registering for such a service should you wish to, I've never been offered it by O2. Nor have I ever been asked by them how old I am.

So she’s clearly not using WiFi but using costly mobile data.

You need to set up online accounts for all of your mum's bills to your own email so you're able to look at stuff like this.

You also need to speak to her local council to set up care and support if you don't have a family member near her to help

It depends entirely on your contract - on many of them, you have X amount of minutes/data included but once you go over that, you're charged at "standard rate" for anything else.

I'm with o2 and had to specifically set up a spending limit of "0" so that once my inclusive minutes/data are used up, that's it - I can't get more unless I specifically ring or text and ask for it.

Dementia + mobile is a liability OP. It’s amazing she can still use it at all but she won’t be able to indefinitely. You need to get her a landline with an ordinary phone. Some businesses specialise in phone lines for elderly.

That’s for business customer service.

All plans are different.

As you can see another poster above wrote that her boyfriend had an O2 plan,

it wasn't capped,

And when he went outside of his allowed data, he was charged a huge amount.

I'm on o2 the data is capped you can't go over your allowance so it's not that. You can also put a spend cap on your account.

Google o2 access for all, there's some info on there about vulnerable customers and a WhatsApp number you or your mum can use to contact someone. I've used it before for an elderly neighbour and they were really helpful

Age UK in some areas have digital help workers. Might be worth contacting the national Age uk number in the morning to see if they have anyone local.
Do you have POA set up for your mum? If not it would be a good idea to get it sorted ASAP

I would contact SS if she has dementia, they may need to protect her. Or ring help the aged.someone needs to see her f2f.

O2, as a reputable company, would not scam a customer per se. But she might be on an expensive tariff. Of greater concern is the mobile number you are calling ostensibly to contact O2. Is that actually O2, and are the bills actually coming from O2?

I think they ask a lot of people to set the cap themselves?

It's probably accurate, my boyfriend ran up a bill of £300 in just a few hours of data usage once when he had a work emergency. It was also 02 and a terrible plan he was on where he got massively overcharged once he went out of regular rates.

As it's overseas calling she's doing, if she's using data for that then yes it will cost an absolute fortune.

I agree she must still be using her mobile data rather than wi-fi.

Switch her to giffgaff, they use 02 and that way you can pay for a plan and when it's out of data it's out of data rather than them charging more.

They aren't going to warn you about what you're spending, you signed a contract and agreed to their terms. They have no clue whether someone has dementia or not, and it's not their responsibility to manage people's finances for them.

Do they? Has this changed recently, when I was sorting out a contract for my youngest child we considered how much data would be needed before deciding, they certainly weren't mostly unlimited, I need to look at changing if that's the case now, even the cheaper monthly ones?

In pretty sure that when I moved to O2 I had to specifically ask for a cap and choose the amount, I don't think it was automatic

Some plans maybe.

But I know my friend was charged a huge amount after going outside of the set minutes of her plan.

Most contracts have a cap so they don’t allow you to spend over a certain amount. I was with O2 for years and they told me legally they have to set a low spend cap and can only raise it if you ask them

Most plans offer unlimited data these days and it sounds like she hasn’t switched back to WiFi after hospital stay. You could try to appeal to 02s better nature as she is vulnerable and could have been on a better data plan. (unfortunately they may not speak to you)

I would set up the online account yourself and manage it. You may need her to receive and pass on a code to you in the set up process.

Are you able to create a My O2 account and check via that.
There's an app and the online account - it gives you a breakdown of usage and bill. You will also be able to speak to someone via the chat on the app/site.

If the home WiFi has changed from shell to talktalk she may need a new password to reconnect. Without WiFi she could be burning through a lot of mobile data.

Might be worth also contacting talktalk and seeing if they can help to get her reconnected?

I know your immediate worry is the phone but honestly that’s not acceptable at all

you should complain about that