"Hi, that text was charged from your giffgaff credit balance"

ollieayl

Hi all,

Having a little issue with my dad’s phone. Weird thing is that he’s actually not a giffgaff subscriber (he’s on O2), but he keeps on receiving messages to his iPhone from phone number removed for privacy saying “From: 43431 Hi, that text was charged from your giffgaff credit balance. Your credit balance is now £x.xx. Stop notifications: giff.ly/stopbn” . The listed credit balance keeps on going down each time. He’s scared it’s a scam, does anyone know if it might be? I know 43431 is a giffgaff official number looking at previous reports from people who have had a similar issue, but this didn’t actually come from 43431 itself so I’m wondering if it’s someone trying to impersonate them. Since he doesn’t actually have a giffgaff account or any credit I can’t see any way in which his actually money could be being taken, but any help anyone can offer would be much appreciated. Thank you.

natty88

ollieayl is it possible you and dad have iPhones

If yes try this to correct numbers

iPhone issues

welcome to help and support

you need to do this:

Go to Settings on your phone:

Then to Messages/FaceTime
Switch iMessage/FaceTime OFF:

Edit your iPhone to your new number:

by going to settings-phone-my number:

Turn your phone OFF and back ON:

Once phone reboots:

turn iMessages back ON again

Wait for it to finish activating in iMessage

And see it works now

or Try a reset of network settings
(be aware this will erase your saved wifi passwords, it won’t erase or affect anything else)
Go to
Settings
General
Reset
And click reset network settings
The phone will switch off and restart automatically in a few minutes

If dad believes it’s scam forward the message to 7726 free

jfc1951

ollieayl he keeps on receiving messages to his iPhone from phone number removed for privacy saying “From: 43431 Hi, that text was charged from your giffgaff credit balance. Your credit balance is now £x.xx. Stop notifications: giff.ly/stopbn

Hi, that appears to be a genuine giffgaff text. He ought not to be getting those if his number is with O2, so something is amiss.

I suggest that you raise the matter with a giffgaff agent via, as the closest category to the issue

https://support2.giffgaff.com/app/ask/Account-misuse-and-security-issues/A-suspicious-message-or-email-claiming-to-be-from-giffgaff/form/

EDIT Just saw sloz reply. Hang off contacting an agent until you’ve considered what’s said there.

ollieayl

Sorry, just seen that the phone number was removed for privacy, but yes, it was not 43431 but was a full UK mobile number that began with +44.

sloz

ollieayl
Hi, how long has your dad been with o2 ?
And he doesn’t have a giffgaff sim in a none mobile device?

What do you hear exactly when you call the number that the text arrived from?
Do you hear “welcome to giffgaff voicemail”
Or
“it has not been possible to connect your call please try again later”
Or
Does it ring or do you hear something else?

ollieayl

sloz Hi Sloz, he’s been with O2 for a long time now, and has never had a giffgaff sim of any description no.

Having spoken with him now I understand a little better about what happened, apologies I didn’t quite report what occurred correctly originally. The number which the messages came from was actually supposed to be a business contact’s, but he copied down the actual number incorrectly and dialled it instead. When he rang it it rang several times like a normal phone number before going to a message, he doesn’t remember what it was exactly (he’s reluctant to call it again to find out as that’s what prompted the messages to start happening in the first place).

For more context the messages started coming very fast after he made that, and very quickly his supposed giffgaff credit of around £12.00 was drawn down about 25p at a time to 0.75p. The messages then stopped, and he’s now blocked the number, so in some sense it seems like things have resolved themselves, but we’re still somewhat mystified as to what actually happened/is happening.

sloz

ollieayl
What’s th first 8 digits of the number?

Does your dad have bundled minutes and texts with his o2 sim, or is it pay as you go rates?