O2 contract fraudster uses Newark couple’s home address

A family is sick of receiving phone bills for someone fraudulently using their address who isn’t settling up.

The Simons family, of Newark, have received more than 20 letters from O2 in the last three months about a phone that doesn’t belong to any of them.

The phone was bought a man who has used the Simons’ family address for his phone contract bills, and as he is not paying them, so it could affect the family’s credit score.

Paul and Karen Simons have lived at the same house for nearly 40 years and have never been with O2.

Karen said: “We got the first letters about 12 weeks ago; we got two, one for the phone and one for insurance, then we got four and kept getting four.

“My husband spoke to O2 but they don’t get it and when I spoke to O2 last week they were telling us that we could get a bad mark.”

The couple are concerned that the fraudster’s bills could affect their credit score, and are frustrated at the lack of verification O2 employed.

Karen said: “They must know where the phone has been delivered to.

“We should have been contacted by the fraud department, but we are still waiting.

“Its crazy, we’re getting more letters for nothing; we had four last week.

“We came home from our son’s wedding and then we got four more.”

They originally sent some of the letters back to O2 explaining that the person named was not at the address, and have even been into an O2 shop to explain their situation.

After two more weeks of frustration for Karen and her husband, the couple contacted the Advertiser who intervened with O2 on their behalf.

A spokesman for O2 has said: “We have spoken with Mr Simons and resolved this issue.

“The O2 account in question has been disconnected, and Mr and Mrs Simons’ address has been removed from our system.

“They will receive no further letters from O2 addressed to the named person who fraudulently obtained and used their address.”

The company has sent the couple a cheque of £30 as a gesture of goodwill, but the pair weren’t happy with the gesture.

Karen said: “I think we spent more in phone calls to them.”