This is weird... is it a scam?

[TeddyBearRug]

Yesterday I got a text from o2 (from the same number they send general alerts like my bill being due etc) saying my my account had been barred. I could see that I indeed had no service and couldn't make calls. I was told to call them to take the bar off the account. I double checked the number they were telling me to call was the same as on the o2 website as I'd had lots of dodgy texts from banks etc recent. The number was the same.

As my landline phone was dead (taken off hook by kids and we never use it!) and I had no need to call anyone I decided just to wait until today to sort it out.

I called them today and asked for the bar to be removed and asked what had happened. The woman told me that they had been contacted by someone via a webchat yesterday reporting the phone stolen. They gave my number, the correct model of phone and gave their name as (say) Sarah Jane Smith.

Now, Sarah Smith is my married name which I'm known by, not many people would know my middle name, but the o2 account is in my maiden name, Sarah Jones, which is what I would have given if I was contacting 02.

I told the woman to unbar my phone and said it wasn't me who had requested this as my phone wasn't stolen. We went through some security question and she sorted it and I asked her why someone would have done this, as there was no way it was an accident, with them giving the correct name, number and phone model and I was worried it was some kind of scam but couldn't figure out how someone would benefit from it?

She said sometimes people you know (enemies!) do things like this just to cause trouble and that they don't go through security questions when someone is reporting a phone missing.

But I can't of anyone who would do this to me and can't think of the benefits of a stranger getting these details and doing this but I'm still worried it's some sort of scam. I was even worried it was a very elaborate scam where someone could disable your phone and set it up again!

I'd be really grateful if anyone could shed any light, maybe something I haven't thought of or if anyone has had this done to them?

Anyone?

Strange one. I have a few questions!

Do o2 have any record of your married name anywhere even though the account is in your maiden name?
How common is either (full) name?
Is it possible that another Sarah Jane Smith rang to report their phone lost/stolen and the wrong record was pulled up? If they don't ask security questions, possibly they didn't ask her for the phone number?
Failing that... have you pissed anyone off lately?

Thanks for replying.

Both surnames are considerably less common than Smith and Jones and my first name is common but not as much as Sarah, so I think it would be unlikely there would be another one in the UK especially if they gave my exact number!

I'm not aware of o2 having a record of my married name.

I don't think I've pissed anyone off, that was my my first thought too! But I could be wrong! And no one who would know my middle name, mobile number and network also it seems like a lot of effort to cause someone a relatively minor inconvenience.

This happened to me 18 months ago. Very similar even down to the married/ maiden name.
They got a new sim for my account and managed to use my credit card to the tune of £10k (because they received the texts authorising the payments and intercepted the fraud department calls).

If you ever lose service call straight away. I was away on holiday and so didn't really question why I had lost service.

This was all done via webchat, they did not check their ID (but I had to take all my ID to the store to get my SIM reinstated, funny that?) - my email had been hacked so they could reset my password.

This was EE.

And the only place I can track it back to is a fancy London restaurant that I went to with friends for a 40th a couple of weeks before. I made the reservation using my email address and mobile number (it is apparently very easy to find out the network from the number) and put my card behind the bar to run a tab. I never "lost" my card.
I did get the money back but it was a stressful few weeks and I felt violated - these people had so much information on me.

I have set up a burner email address for things like that now and all my banking/ mobile/ other stuff is on other email addresses.

@Fleurchamp thank you so much for replying.

Reading your post reminded me that I had a text alert from my bank yesterday which I assumed it was spam as get loads of messages like that but most are from banks I don't have an account with so assumed it was just a 'lucky guess'.

I realised it must have been real so contacted the bank who told me they had spoken to 'me' yesterday but they had terminated the call during the security questions. They obviously disabled my phone to try to stop me getting notifications of this. They've cancelled all my cards and I have checked with o2 and nothing was sent out, just cancelled and am now in the process of changing passwords etc. I'm so pleased I started this post- I would have had no idea.

@TeddyBearRug glad you managed to get it sorted out before any damage was done!

It's a horrible feeling though