Mobile Phone fraud

[up4it]

I have only just got my statement for my mobile phone from end of August (I have not used this phone for 4 months) and the bill was £152 (I expect to pay £15pcm) and there were 18 pages of detailed calls/texts etc.

I was going to report this but thought that I would check my bank statement first and notice that today they are debiting me with £745 for the month of August

When I saw my bill last night I checked and I still have my SIM and the old phone I dont use anymore

I have this morning called my phone provider and they say I must have given my SIM card out, I have not done this as it has been at the house all the time, they have now blocked my number and referred this to their fraud department and they will be in touch

What are the chances of me getting my money back?

It seems to me they will just claim that I gave my SIM out and as I claim otherwise it is just my word against theirs - any advice on what I can do?

[TorahBoy]

Their fraud dept should sort this out. They will check where as well as when the calls were made. In all likelihood they will drop the charges, but bar the sim. They are unlikely to take you to court to recover the debt, as courts are more inclined to find in favour of customers who refute the charges than in favour of the mobile provider. It is most likely that your sim has been 'cloned', and the calls made to premium rate lines set up abroad by individuals experienced at conning money from mobile providers. In the worst case, if you are taken to court, it is not incumbent upon you to prove you didn't make the calles, rather that the mobile provider proves that you DID.

(I used to work for the largest mobile provider in the UK, in the fraud dept. We investigated hundreds of disputed bills each week, and in two years we took fewer than ten people to court)