O2 victim of £4 million phone line scam
12 October 2011 09:51
Mobile phone company O2 lost nearly £4.5 million after it was the victim of a sophisticated global premium phone line scam, a court heard today.
Five men are facing sentencing for conspiracy to defraud after stolen identities were used to obtain mobile phones.
Sim cards from the phones were tested on handsets and then sent overseas where premium rate lines were acquired, Southwark Crown Court was old.
The cards were used to make multiple calls to lines generating "substantial" bills for O2, the court heard.
David Hughes, prosecuting, said: "As far as the acquisition of these Sim cards is concerned they are fraudulently acquired by using the personal data and details of totally innocent persons.
"The fraudsters acquire these details by whatever means and these identities are used and abused either at retail outlets, or by means of telephone orders or by orders over the internet.
"The company concerned in this case, O2, have a contract with a well known delivery company, DHL, and telephones ordered on the phone or by the internet are then delivered with their Sim cards by DHL drivers.
"Another level of sophistication in this particular case is that the fraudsters were able to identify specific post code areas that certain drivers delivered to and they were in effect corrupted.
"Instead of delivering them to the addresses that would be shown on the packaging they were diverted to the conspirators."
A number of these drivers have pleaded guilty, some have been convicted in relation to the case and some were awaiting trial, he told the court.
The extent of the fraud became obvious when innocent people in whose names the phone had been bought began to receive bills, the court heard.
"The reason that these defendants were effectively caught was analysts at O2 were able to identify specific handsets which had been used to test some of the fraudulently obtained Sim cards," he said.
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