Facua-Consumers in Action warns this Friday of the penultimate telephone scam: the user receives a call where a teleoperator pretending to be from his company offers him a discount to compensate him for service deficiencies. Alleged fees apply through a “white brand” or “family” from the operator, actually This is another telecom that has nothing to do with it.
The objective of the call is the victim ported his line to another company believe he will continue with the same company. Teleoperators who call do not work directly for the operator who benefits from the flexibility, but for companies that get commissions for achieving registrations.
Facua was alerted to the scam by several consumers, one of whom provided a call record (listen here). In it, a teleoperator introduced himself as an employee of his company, Movistar, and assured him that they offer discounts for deficiencies in the quality of the internet connection.
This is how cheating works
“Movistar is a big company that works with private labels”, introduced the teleoperator on the call, who proceeded to confirm that “The white brands of Movistar are the companies O2, Tuenti and MásMóvil”. The first two brands belong to Movistar – although Tuenti will be phased out at the beginning of 2022 – but MásMóvil is a telecommunications group that has nothing to do with it. And MásMóvil is actually the company where the teleoperator offers the supposed discount.
Due to the possibility of the user asking why the same company they contracted their services with did not give them the discount, the teleoperator came and stated the following: “If, due to the length of service that Movistar has with us, it does not charge a customer with discount applications, the system tells us to apply it through one of our subsidiaries”.
In fact, since the elderly are more likely to fall into the trap, the teleoperator refers to them to state that it cannot directly apply the discount to the user. “Being a pensioner or having been with the company for more than five years” and therefore it must be processed through one of them “white marks”which is also called “subsidiaries”.
What to do if you fall into a trap
Facua advises users who are victims of this type of fraud to file a complaint to the consumer authority of your autonomous community and warn your new company that you signed up as a result of fraud, to avoid any kind of penalty if you decide to go back to your previous operator.
The association warns that the described scam can take place using the name of any company. Many users fall for not knowing which groups are the different telecommunications brands operating in the market.
In this sense, the association remembers that Movistar is also the owner of the O2 brand, that Vodafone is the owner of Lowi, that Orange is the owner of Simyo and that the MásMóvil group includes Yoigo and Pepephone, and other companies.
