Iphone insurance scam - uk only?

[Libitina]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gizmo/article1839178.ece

OWNERS of iPhones and other hi-tech mobiles are being conned in a sim card scam feared to have netted millions.

A gang has cracked sim codes that help identify numbers of new mobile phone buyers.

They have obtained bank details of hundreds of owners by cold-calling them to sell bogus insurance packages.

One new iPhone buyer from London said: “They called me out of the blue and launched into an insurance sales patter.

“They requested details to set up a direct debit, but I said no and the caller poured out a flood of four-letter abuse.

“I didn’t fall for it, but someone more vulnerable could be conned.”

Police and Trading Standards officials have traced the source of the scam to a gang around Swansea, South Wales.

 

[rajkbala]

thats true

Whenever I buy mobile contract from UK carphonewarehouse, I always get call from a local number asking for bank details to setup mobile insurance. Someone must be sumbitting details else how do those people get our details. It not only happened once but 3 times i took contract from them.

Might be we all need to be more careful.

 

[Libitina]

i think quite a few got the call, I did, but never get the insurance anyway.

 

[markfc]

Yeah I posted that here months ago and everyone called 'BS'

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/528357/

 

[ShepUK]

Less-than-scrupulous companies have been doing this in the UK for years... though it's not as high-tech a crime as this item suggests. Mobile phone companies tend to allocate their numbers in blocks, so if you know when a particular number was activated, then there's a good chance that all the other numbers in the same block were activated at roughly the same time. You can then make a good guess as to when a particular number's contract has started, or is due to expire, and cold-call the number as appropriate.

Check this thread of complaints about "mobiles4u" - one of the worst offenders in the UK (my workmates and I get dodgy calls from this bunch all the time... they always claim to be calling on the behalf of O2 - but they're not!):

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01269598400