Criminals are using the Carphone Warehouse brand to access people’s accounts and defraud them out of their money, we can reveal.
Mirror Money has heard from dozens of people who have received unsolicited calls from fraudsters purporting to be from the retailer – offering tariff discounts, early upgrades and alleging that they have won a competition.
In many cases, the customers said they blocked the number, only to be called hours later from another landline associated with a different call centre using the same script.
In one case, a woman received 14 calls in one day.
“They are relentless,” Lorraine, who is actually a Three customer, told The Mirror.
“The scammers are awful. I hung up and blocked them but they just called again using another number. It’s worrying as while I didn’t fall for it, some people out there could.”
Mirror reader Tom told us he has also received several calls from people claiming to be Carphone Warehouse and Talk Talk employees. He says they attempted to get his phone bank details multiple times.
The two brands are owned by the same company, Dixons Carphone.
He’s one of hundreds of people complaining about the issue on social media.
“I’ve had a number of calls on both my mobile and landline. They’ve been claiming to be Carphone Warehouse and Talk Talk. They go through the standard introduction saying they are “John”, or other similar names, offering deals on phone tariffs,” he said.
“The numbers are spoofed to look like UK numbers. Basically they try to get your banking details.
“They may be different call centres but run the same script bought from each other,” Tom added.
“When I called them out they hung up. This scammer rang back with another spoofed number but this showed up on my phone as a business in Yorkshire.”
One person said the call initially came through on 0141 352 8310.
Speaking on twitter, he then hung up only to receive another call from a second fraudster using the number 01423 771673.
Other customers have reported the scam coming from the 020 3264 1282 landline.
Responding to some concerned customers on social media, Carphone Warehouse said: “We’ve had an influx of scam calls from agents impersonating Carphone Warehouse.”
In one case seen on Twitter, the recipient was told her sister had won a new phone.
The scammer then asked her to purchase an iTunes gift card, replicating a similar scam in which people are told to repay tax bills in the form of vouchers.
The customer said: “My sister won an iPhone 12 pro max from your company. They told her to purchase an iTunes gift card of R250 and R500. Is this true or scam?”
In another word of warning, Carphone Warehouse said: “We’ve been advised of an influx of scam callers calling to offer non-existent iPhone deals and this is not a call from Carphone Warehouse.”
The Mirror has contacted Carphone Warehouse for a comment and will update this story shortly.
The company told us the unsolicited calls are related to scammers and are not cold calls from the online retailer.
If you receive a phone call out of the blue from someone purporting to be from a reputable company, it’s important that you act with caution. If ever in doubt, hang up and call the registered company’s official number instead.