Staying alert to scams and fraudulent activity

At Virgin Media O2, we take the security of our customers incredibly seriously.

Unfortunately, there has been an increase in scams recently, with fraudsters using increasingly sophisticated means to try and get sensitive data from our customers, including using texts, emails, social media and phone calls.

Anyone can be targeted by scammers, so we wanted to take a moment to remind all of our customers of what they can do if they come across something that seems suspicious. It’s important that all of our customers stay vigilant so they don’t fall victim to fraudulent activity. We know it might not always be easy to work out if the person you are talking to is who they say they are, so there are a number of things customers should know:

• We will never call our customers, message them via social media or send an SMS to ask for their bank details. If any customers are asked for this information, we urge them to not give any details, to disconnect the call or end the chat and report the incident to Action Fraud or call your service provider’s customer service line straight away.

• We urge customers to never give their personal information in response to an incoming call, or rely upon the Caller ID as the sole means of identification, particularly if the caller asks them to carry out an action which might have financial consequences.

• If anyone receives a call allegedly from Virgin Media or O2, and they have a concern over the callers’ identity, hang up before calling us directly to validate the call.

• And if they receive a text message or email that they’re concerned about, don’t click any links.

Checking it’s really us

We’ll never ask customers for sensitive stuff like passwords, bank details or other personal security info.

When we talk to Virgin Media customers, we’ll ask them to confirm that they’re the account holder and for three random characters of their memorable word.

If they don’t have a memorable word on their account, or they can’t provide the three random characters, we’ll ask for them to answer some security questions.

At O2, we will never call, text or email customers and ask for a one-time code, password, or other security information they’ve set up on their O2 account. If a customer is on an incoming call with someone who says they’re from O2 and who asks for the one-time activation code (OTAC) that’s been sent to their device, it will not be genuine. Please hang up immediately. We have lots of detail on how to be aware of Account Takeover fraud online.

If something just doesn’t feel right, we advise customers to hang up, wait for a few minutes, and give us a call back directly on the relevant number:

• Virgin Media customers should phone 150 from their landline or 0345 454 1111 from any other phone
• O2 customers should call 202 from their O2 phone or 0344 809 0202 from any other phone

Customers worried that they might have been scammed

If customers feel like they might have been the victim of fraud – whether because they’ve given details over the phone, or clicked a link in a text or email and provided sensitive details – there are things they can do:

1. Contact their bank if they think that they may have given out financial information
2. Change their account password
3. Forward fraudulent texts to us for free on 7726 and we’ll look into them
4. Contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040
5. Call your Virgin Media or O2 customer services number if they think somebody’s taken out a contract with us using their details

Find out more

For more tips and advice about nuisance calls and fraudulent activity, Virgin Media customers can head to www.virginmedia.com/securityhub

And O2 customers can head to our dedicated Fraud and Security pages: https://www.o2.co.uk/help/safety-and-security