I'm actually the son of the account holder, her English is not fluent and she has signs of memory loss. I'm the person who uses EE mobile services, she's with another provider.
Over the past week I have been contacted by four different phone numbers starting from 7418, 7537, 7421 and 7854, claiming to be EE, both on the phone and on Whatsapp. All but one spoke in South Asian accents and they offered to reduce my monthly mobile bill by 12.5% and a new iPhone. They then asked for my and my mother's address, full name, date of birth, etc. for verification. The only information they did not get from me was my bank account, which my mother refused to give. A few days later (i.e. today), while doing research for one of the surveys I do from time to time, I realised that the numbers didn't add up - it would take 5+ years to pay for the iPhone model they were promising at the price they were offering. Upon investigation, I found that the numbers came from a company called "Stout Marine", which is considered by some to be a scam.
The next day DPD delivered the iPhone 16 to me, and it is a real iPhone. Soon after, they called me again and said that the activation failed and 1) asked me to return the iPhone and 2) offered to cut my mobile bill in half. As I was packing my iPhone, my dad stopped me and said it MUST be a scam, and upon further research I came across this post where the iPhone ended up in the hands of fraudsters. I have already reported all of these numbers to 7726 as a precautionary measure.
If this was a normal scam, I would be more alarmed. But strangely 1) my data allowance has increased from 150GB to unlimited on the EE app and 2) the message about the "iPhone delivery" - true or false - comes from 150, the number that remind me of direct debit payments for mobile bills. Now there has been possible breaches, but no real damages has been done. I'm quite insecure. So, besides actions I've taken, what can I do? Report it to the police? Return it to the EE address in Milton Keynes?
