A MUM was targeted by scammers who emptied thousands from her bank account using just her mobile phone number.
Caroline Leary’s number was ported from O2 to Vodafone without her knowledge, and fraudsters took a total of £3,500.
The 43-year-old, from Bonnybridge, in Falkrik, Scotland, said the unknown swindlers were also able to access her email, passwords and other personal data, even setting up a PayPal credit account.
She told The Sun: “I’ve been left with nothing. I’ve had to change everything.
“It’s one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me in my life.”
The mum-of-one, who works at Greggs, noticed she couldn’t dial out on her number on April 18 – then after work she found multiple missed calls from the same number.
She took her phone to her local O2 store and was told her phone appeared to have been ported to the rival network – and was warned to check her bank account.
To her horror, Caroline saw £3,000 had been taken in one transaction from her Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) account.
She later found a further £500 had been transferred in two instalments through a PayPal credit account set up by the scammers.
On contacting police, Caroline was advised to set up new accounts for everything as a precaution.
However, she said O2 are “not bothered one bit” and have claimed an investigation is underway – in the meantime she can’t access her phone account at all, and is instead using a pay as you go SIM.
She has spent a total of 1,366 minutes on the phone to the network since the ordeal started and is yet to receive a call back.
Caroline is angry that her phone could be ported so quickly and without her consent.
She said: “Someone has stolen my identity and O2 are not bothered one bit. Every time I speak to them they just pass me around. I’ve phoned every day. It’s never ending.
“This is people’s lives. They’ve given my number away.”
She continued: “It’s scary, it’s not a personalised attack but it feels like it. The scammers know your address, they know where you work, they know everything.
“They know all your passwords, just from getting your phone number. What if I was an old person? I’ve had sleepless nights.”
Caroline never answers unknown numbers and doesn’t open suspicious emails or messages, and is baffled as to how she was so easily targeted.
“I’m quite savvy. I’m very very switched on, I would never give away any details or anything. Something happened but I don’t know what. It could happen to anyone,” she said.
“It’s the mental situation, honestly it’s drove me crazy this whole time.
I’ve been left with nothing. I’ve had to change everything. It’s one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me in my life.
Caroline Leary
“Everything’s affected. The next day I was at work, it was stressing me. I’m physically hardly sleeping, worrying, trying to get my passwords back.”
RBS closed her accounts for over a week while they investigated the fraud and she was left having to borrow cash from her sister – to the tune of around £100.
However, the £3,000 was eventually returned.
Though, she says she closed her PayPal account and has not had the other £500 reimbursed.
She is wants to get her old number back, as it’s been in use for 15 years.
An O2 spokesperson: “Unfortunately, Ms Leary has been a victim of fraud after a scammer was able to pass security and multi-factor authentication on her MyO2 account in order to port out her number to another provider.
“We acknowledge Ms Leary has had a poor customer experience, for which we apologise, and as soon as we receive the customer’s contact information we will speak with her directly to find a resolution.”
The Sun has also contacted RBS, PayPal and Police Scotland for comment.
