Fraud Investigation - Phones Frozen

[Rasengan]

I have two Vodafone Pay Monthly numbers in my name. One with my mother and the other with my wife. Yesterday we discovered both numbers suddenly stopped working. Only Emergency Calls possible.

I called customer services and asked whats going on. Confirmed my identity with my 4 digit passcode and they said the Fraud Team is investigating the account and the numbers have been frozen.

I can understand that its in my own benefit that when possible Fraud is detected that they freeze the accounts however there was no effort to contact the account holder, they say they cant discuss anything with me, they say the Fraud team will be in touch later however they dont know if that will be today, tomorrow, next week or next month. I have absolutely no information and the main communications media for us has been removed.

I dont accept that once they verify my identity they cant explain whats happening. For example, 'We have detected some potential Fraud on your account and for your own protection we have frozen the account, apologise for the inconvenience but we will work on this as a matter of urgency'. But no, I had to contact them, give them new contact details and they dont give any idea when this might be resolved.

I pay that little bit extra for what I expected to be a better service from Vodafone, however I guess my bills arent big enough. I suggested that they could top up our Vodafone PAYT phones which we also have with some credit as a nice gesture due to the inconvenience but the answer was 'no'. I am paying the bills, I am the account holder and I am not happy. If the option existed I would cancel now and not pay them anything but I know that would only hurt me and my credit rating, maybe they will sell my debt and get the bailliffs or whatever to come and rob me further.

Luckily I used to work in Vodafone and still have some friends on the inside so I have tried to get more information from this route. Unfortunately most customers don't have this privelege and will be more aggravated with the lack of explanation and silent treatment. Obviously this is caused I believe mainly by the process and not the people but the Customer Service agents could have helped a lot more. Plus there dont seem to be guidelines about when the customer will be contacted by the Fraud Team.

I will update the post with what happens, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[gembo2609]

Hi Rasengan,

I understand your frustration with your account being suspended. At Vodafone we take any potential Fraud seriously so as to protect our customers.

I would like to have a look at your account so that I can update you on what’s happening and see if we can get this resolved for you. If you would like me to do this please contact me using the Vodafone online contact us form at www.vodafone.co.uk select contact us in the top right corner and then select contact us by email. If you include the code FIT135 in the body of the email it will ensure it comes through to my team. Please answer all the questions the form asks to enable me to access your account.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks
Gembo
Vodafone UK

[Rasengan]

Well, this is the 3rd day with mobile disconnection and I had written a 2-page detailed letter complaining about lack of communications from Vodafone when........

Well I was called by a Vodafone Staff member (forgot her name) who deals with these issues and had been asked to look into this. She asked to confirm some details with me and then told me that the lines had been re-activated and apologised for the inconvenience. She was not able to confirm exactly what the problem was but she said that it had to do with some discrepancies on the account.

Now there is a big difference between discrepancy and FRAUD. When someone tells you your account is with the FRAUD team under investigation you immediately think someones used my details and done something dodgy. But discrepancy is different. I did not get confirmation of exactly what it was but when I suggested if this could have been some type of administrative discrepancy the answer was yes.

I am almost certain now what the cause of this whole mess was. I recently moved address and forgot to change my address with Vodafone. However I did update my address with the banks and I can only presume that when they discovered my bank account address for billing wasnt the same as the Vodafone address they thought something was wrong, or possibly mail was returned as 'No longer at this address' and they thought something was not right. However even if this was the case they could have just called and asked me about it!!!! Why all this trouble. Had I been told there was a discrepancy with my account I would have jumped at the opportunity to explain what I thought has happened but they called in FRAUD. In fact when I first called I did advise them of my change of address but they said they 'couldnt make changes to the account when it was with the Fraud team'.

Of course you might suggest that I could have avoided this by notifying of my change of address but moving house is not easy just before XMAS and when you have holidays booked as well! I think some improvement is needed from the Vodafone side as a simple call would have saved a lot of hassle.

The question that now remains is if my contacts on the inside helped to get this resolved more quickly or if this is due process? I think the former, probably would have been a couple more days before the FRAUD team would have addressed this, someone needs to chase them for quick wins.

I'm happy now, but still dissappointed that I had to experience this.

[Rasengan]

Hi Gembo,

I just submitted a post that is awaiting approval and explains what has happened today.

I appreciate your offer of help. In fact knowing that someone like you is here to try and help is a relief. However in the interests of finding out more about what happened and getting your opinion on this I am happy to fill in the form. Maybe you can get something to change about how such a situation is handled.

Let me know if you want me to do this or if it wont be of any benefit.

Regards,

Bilal

[O2alltheway]

i had a simillar problem. They linked my mates number to my bill for some reason so i called to cancell that number as i didnt recognise it. Said i would get a call from the fraud department but that never happened.
I then found out about the mistake as my mate tried to call voda as his phone wasnt working and they would only speak to me so called them to get his number re-activated which they said was goin to happen adn i would get a call from the fraud department to clear things up, no calls, letters or anything. Then 4 days after i have called and said it wasnt a fraud claime they cancelled MY own number for no reason, Called them up and was told basically that i was a liar and never called them to reinstate the number, also said its cancelled and thats that tough luck but i would get a call from the fraud department , surprise surprise THAT never happened, so i go to get a pay as u go sim for the time being as my girlfriend uses the fone and i find out that 3 days after all this rubbish they re assigned my number to someone else and thats it

still havent had any correspondence or calls from anyone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not surprised if the call center is still singlepoint rubbish

[edwardpeter]

Hi Rasengan,

I'm pleased that your lines are active again now, but it'd still be great if you could get in contact with us so that we can try and give you a better explanation of what's gone on. Please follow the link that Gembo posted above and follow the instructions. We'll be in touch as quickly as possible to help.

Thanks for your time,

edwardpeter
Vodafone UK

[Rasengan]

Hi EdwardPeter,

Posted just now with that code in the body of the e-mail as requested.

Many Thanks,

R

[O2alltheway]

mines still offline , even after 3 emails sent ...

[edwardpeter]

Hi O2alltheway,

I can get this sorted for you. If you include the code FIT135 and a link to this thread in your message when you complete the Vodafone Online Contact Form (https://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_Help_ContactUs&pageID=CU_0002), your query will come to my team and I'll deal with it personally.

I look forward to speaking to you,

edwardpeter
Vodafone UK

[Rasengan]

Dear All,

I thought I should provide a quick update to you al about whats happened to date. I posted an online query with all the details as requested and was contacted by a very helpful young lady from Vodafone who it seems makes a post here every now and then also. In any case she was able to confirm to me that there was an ongoing investigation into possible fraud as 2 numbers had been added or created on my account recently.

She asked me if I recognised the numbers and I certainly did not and it also seems that the address was changed too! She explained that the investigation was going to ascertain how the changes were made and numbers added, if for example someone was able to get a hold of my 4-digit passcode (unlikely but possible). She was very helpful more than once and having this line of communication with Vodafone was EXTREMELY releiving for me. The only thing I can imagine worse than what I experienced is if for some reason they were not going to re-activate the original numbers in the short term until the investigation was concluded - that would have been a disaster. To date I'm not sure if I have my numbers working today because I knew someone or because due process meant that they got re-activated.

Anyway, back to the point: I was sent some disclaimer forms to sign that I know nothing about the numbers, provide some information whic might be helpful and to authorise further investigation by the Fraud team who would possibly report this to the police. I sent the form by recorded delivery along with copies of proof of ID as requested and this was 2 weeks ago. I have not heard anything since. No confirmation that the forms are recieved - what if I had not sent by recorded? I will wait a little longer then give them a ring.

Will keep you posted.

[techgirl]

Hi Bilal,

I have checked our email inbox and we haven't yet received an email from you. Did you receive a reference number when the message sent, if so I would be able to search for your email.
If you didn't receive a reference would it be possible for you to re-send your email, as soon as we received it we'll be happy to help.

Techgirl
Vodafone UK

[O2alltheway]

thought i might update this to

4 months , 35 emails, 4 letters later im still offline but keep getting bills for £900 pounds.

and i am yet to hear from the fraud department

GREAT SERVICE VODA :rolleyes: :dead: