Update, 21 Feb 2018
Hi all,
It's with a little sadness that I'm having to resurrect this thread - we've noticed that scam calls of this type are back on the rise. If you receive a missed call from a number you don't recognise, please consider that it could be part of a scam like this, and that calling back could be very expensive with no benefit to you.
The current spate of activity we're seeing are from number that mostly begin with 00223, and rather than being premium rate calls, they're directing to an international number that can costyou more than you might expect. We're going to do what work we can to block these number ranges from being called, but it's possible for this scam to be operated from any number or area, so please be wary if you see one of these missed calls appear on your phone.
Thanks,Will
Original post, May 2016:
Hi everyone, I’m Mark - you may remember me from a crazy charity challenge I did 2 years ago. As I mentioned in there, I work in our finance team, and one of our most important responsibilities is to stay on top of and cut down on fraud. One of the things that came to my attention recently, and that you may have read about elsewhere, is a scam that’s been going round on UK mobile networks that takes money from your account unfairly. I wanted to fill you in on a few things we’ve done to protect you.
Firstly, a little detail - this scam has relied on members of the public receiving a missed call from a premium number. This will typically be a missed call with no voicemail or information about the call. The scammers are hoping that the person who has received the call makes a return call to the number; this will typically be a premium charge call or an advertising channel, which then charges quite a lot of money for the call. This is known as a Wangiri scam.
Your experience is of paramount importance at giffgaff, and we are continually monitoring and understanding these type of scams. In this case, the number ranges that have been identified to be taking part in this scam have been blocked on the giffgaff network, and members who have made calls to these numbers since 1st February 2016 will have the charge for the call recredited. If you’ve been directly affected, we’ll let you know directly in the next couple of days explaining, and you’ll see the credit on your account by the middle of the first week of June 2016.
As always, even if you haven’t been affected, we recommend prevention rather than cure - if you have a missed call from a number you don’t recognise, particularly any premium numbers, think twice before calling back. We’ll continue to monitor for dodgy things like this in the future to keep you safe, and if you have any questions, bob them in this thread and I’ll do my best to answer where I can.
Thanks,
Mark
