Two fraudulent attempts to take over my phone line

Hi


Around a week ago an e-mail informing me that Zen had received a request to transfer my line away and change it's ownership.

I replied indicating it was not authorised and asking them to decline which they did promptly on the Monday (mail was received in the Saturday), this was followed up by a letter from Plusnet with my address but with someone else's name who was never lived here (have been here 26 years), the letter contained service details for broadband and phone.

Yesterday the Post Office tried to deliver a box from Plusnet, again addressed to this person, my Mother was in at the time and refused the delivery.

I have now just received another notification from Zen about a change of ownership and transfer away, again I have replied and included my initial e-mail correspondence with them.

I don't know who this [censored] is but his antics are getting tiresome, who do I need to contact to get this stopped and a transfer lock put on my line?

I'm sorry for the language but I am getting fed up with batting this away.

<sarcasn>
Cheers for the helpful replies
</sarcasm>

Zen put the brakes on this again but confirmed that legally they can't stop someone trying to take over the line.


I also rang ofcom who proved to be of little assistance as they maintained it could be a mistake, once is a mistake, twice isn't

Rang Plusnet who told me they'd cancelled the order as they can see the rejection, asked if they can put a block on orders from my address, they reitereated they'd cancelled the order but didn't say they;d reject anything further so I'm guessing I'm stuck playing ping pong with whoever this is?

Don't you need to give some sort of payment information when ordering/switching provider. Every time I've switched provider it has required direct debit information. Perhaps you could ask what name they have on the payment information. I've also had some weird issues in the past regarding a similar issue. Ordered a phone line, but somehow managed to get my house mixed up with a house 20 miles away with a different house name and same postcode, somehow. Have you tried looking up the name that was on the parcel? See if he is on facebook or some other social platform.

Hi

I've a similar thing before at my last property, turned out it was a neighbour opposite. Simple mistake, they had entered their post code, clicked the drop down of matches to select their address and were slightly off, picking house 7 (me) in place of house 6, and just never noticed and placed an order.

So it isn't necessary fraudulent, probably just a simple mistake, and they are likely chasing PlusNet asking why nothing has happened yet, and they are being told they've rejected the change etc, until someone uses some common sense and checks the customer details.

Regards

Phil

Your suggestion is the most likely reason, rather than something malicious.

Personally I would have accepted the delivery - presumably a router. Then somebody would have had to come looking for it.
At that point you might find out some real information. Maybe, maybe not.
My money would be on somebody making a mistake somewhere. Unless you have some reason to believe that there is someone out there with malicious intent.

I experienced a similar situation where-by a very close [80 feet] new tenant had requested a telephone line /number for his address from BT. the house had a previous bt number which had been unused for a period of years and had be re-allocated elsewhere in the same area .

the letter to me read .
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Someone wants to takeover your line .

Dear Mr x , another customer wants to take over the phone line on
01xxx xxx xxx at your address on the 28 of September2018.

You need to tell us if this isn't right.
If you're not moving or expecting another customer to take over your line , we can cancel the order and make sure your service in't affected Please call us as soon as you can before 2 pm. on 27.Sep 2018... etc. etc. etc
---------------------------------
I did and still have my number , if I had'nt I'd have lost my number and my Broadband .

Have you considered asking Zen to put a flag on your house number in their system, so that anyone ordering must talk personally with a Zen staffer, or submit an e-mail addy?

All it would take to assess this as fraud or mistake would be to insert a human into the process.

That does nothing...

The gain provider is doing exactly what they are meant to do, and Zen is doing what they are meant to do it seems.

i.e. the system of sending out a 'sorry you seem to want to leave' letter with ability to cancel it is exactly what Ofcom mandated. Scope for people getting details wrong or jokers trying to move people was pointed out at the time.

But given the rejections the gain provider must be able to contact the person placing the order, to query the details.