Identity thieves take out £9,500 worth of phone contracts in Portsmouth businessman's name
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In the run up to Christmas, a man claiming to be Adam McCord went shopping, buying £9,500 worth of phone contracts.
But just behind the big spender was businessman Adam McCord - the real Adam McCord - frantically visiting stores just an hour after a fraudster was using his identity to walk away with expensive tech.
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Hide AdAnd as a national report into policing finds fraudsters act with 'impunity', Adam has warned that 'the police are not doing enough'.
The Cosham resident was alerted to the crime when he received an email from Carphone Warehouse thanking him for upgrading his mobile plan on December 13.
The 35-year-old visited the store in Wellington Retail Park, in Waterlooville, an hour after the fraudster walked out with an iPhone 11 on a contract and a pair of Apple Airpods.
The property consultant travelled across the area to find out how many other stores had been duped by the fraudster.
He said: 'I was hot on heels at some points.
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Hide Ad'I realised he would probably try to get as many phones as possible, so I started to call other providers and found out he had been visiting shops across the area.'
The fraudster had managed to take out at least six phone contracts with three different stores - all in less than three hours.
Alongside Carphone Warehouse, the EE store in Commercial Road, Portsmouth, and the Vodafone branch in the Fareham Shopping Centre were targeted.
It is believed Adam’s identity was stolen by piecing together his name, address, and mobile number from information available online, before faking a passport.
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Hide AdThe fraudster also managed to secure a debit card in Adam's name - and linked it to his address.
Using the debit card, the fraudster was able to switch Adam's mobile number to a new SIM card.
The dad-of-one said: 'I'm usually very careful with my accounts
Calling 101 to report the crime to the police, Adam was instead told to fill in online form on the website for Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting service.
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Hide AdIt was only after The News raised a query with the police almost a month later that the fraud victim was visited by a police officer.
But the visiting officer believed they were investigating a case of shoplifting, without receiving information from Action Fraud.
The businessman said: 'I feel let down by both the police and Action Fraud.
'It feels like we have had to do a lot of the police's job for them in terms of gathering information.'
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Hide AdAnd Adam isn't the first caller to feel let down by fraud reporting service.
Earlier this month, ex-Met Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Craig Mackey published his report into the service's failings, calling for it to be 're-defined and brought back into line with industry standards and public expectation.'
Fraudsters, the report found, are able to 'act with impunity.'
A Hamsphire Constabulary spokesman said 'immediate threat' determines where a caller is directed.
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Hide AdHe said: 'When we receive a report of a fraud, our Contact Management staff will assess this based on whether there is any immediate threat or risk.
'A caller may be referred on to Action Fraud, who are the national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime and can ensure the reports reach the correct place
'If a caller is referred on to Action Fraud, our process is to look to ensure materials such as CCTV can be retrieved and consider whether there is any money at immediate risk and seek to stop this.'
As well as expressing dismay at the police's response, Adam is 'shocked' the shops were not more vigilant.
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Hide AdHe said: 'I'm shocked he was able to get away with this. I know he failed to answer verification questions and his passport failed verification procedures in one store.
'Staff in the store even said they remembered the transaction because they didn't see a purchase like that every day.'
A spokeswoman from Carphone Warehouse said it was looking into the ‘case of highly-sophisticated identity theft.’
She said: ‘In Mr McCord’s case, both the network’s standard check and our own internal checks have allowed the transaction to go through as there was no evidence to believe it was not genuine.
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Hide AdA pair of Samsung Galaxy S10s at a cost of £104 per month where obtained from the Vodafone store, with the company admitting its checks had failed, according to a spokesman.
He said: ‘We have looked into this incident and can confirm that an individual impersonating the customer was able to purchase two devices in his name.
‘As a business we have comprehensive verification checks in place. However since the fraudster used a valid debit card nothing was flagged on our systems.
‘It is not clear why these checks failed in this instance.’
Two Samsung S10s and two Samsung smart watches, all on contracts totalling £234.20 per month, were bought from EE.
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Hide AdAn EE spokeswoman said: ‘We're conducting a full investigation with the store and we sincerely apologise to Mr McCord for any inconvenience and want to reassure him this will not impact his credit rating.’
Even though the fraud didn't see any money leave any of Adam’s accounts, he remains worried that undiscovered contracts could hurt his credit rating.
He said: 'In one day, I had 38 credit rating checks.
'So I worry there are contracts that I’m not aware of.'
He has called on mobile phone providers to toughen their anti-fraud checks.
He added: ‘I don’t think this is one isolated incident,
‘I just want justice.’
The police have released CCTV images of a man in connection to the theft of an Apple watch from one of the stores and in relation to mobile phone contracts set up for two Samsung S10s at around the same time.