Pre-paid mobile phone service plans - Phone cloned

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Mobile phone cloning occurs when an unscrupulous person obtains the unique serial number and telephone number of your phone. A cloned phone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the serial and telephone number belonging to another (legitimate) mobile phone. After cloning, both the legitimate and the fraudulent phones have the same number combinations and mobile systems cannot distinguish the cloned phone from the legitimate one. The legitimate phone user then gets billed for the cloned phone calls.

If you think that your phone has been cloned, you should contact your network provider and your insurer immediately via resolver. Your network provider should be able to determine which calls are legitimate and which have been made from the cloned phone. Check your policy carefully as you may have cover for unauthorised calls (up to a specified amount). If you think the charges you face for a cloned phone are unfair you can complain to the network provider and insurer directly.

You should know

If you have an issue with your Pay As You Go Plan, use Resolver to raise a complaint with your service provider. If you remain unhappy, Resolver will help you to escalate your concerns to the relevant Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme - which will be either OSC (Ombudsman Services: Communications) or CISAS (Commications Industry Adjudication Service).

I received a huge phone bill after a holiday abroad

As of June 2017, data roaming charges within the EU have been dropped. The new rules mean network providers will charge the same rates for calls, texts, and data in the EU as they would in the UK.

However, UK network providers differ in the number of countries they will be applying the new rules to. Variations will also occur depending on whether customers are on pay-as-you-go or on contracts. Exceeding text, minute and data allowances will still be chargeable.

We advise travellers to double check the rules with their network providers before using their phone abroad.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

All telecommunications firms are requird to be a member of an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme that has been approved by the regulator, OfCOM. Currently, OfCOM have approved two schemes - The Communications Ombudsman and CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Service) - and all service providers must be a member of either of these two ADR schemes.

An ADR scheme can help when a dispute cannot be settled by a telecommunications company. The ADR process offers a quicker and cheaper way of resolving disputes than going via the courts. Once the internal complaint process is exhausted, businesses must give the consumer details of an approved ADR provider and tell the consumer if it is willing to use them.

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