Norwich building firm's battle over £10k phone debt continues

Business owner Lisa Palmer said a fraudulent £10,000 debt continued to show up on a credit file several months after the case was meant to have been resolved

The owners of a small building firm who had a £10,000 bill racked up by a fraudster said the debt was still showing up in their company's name.

A scammer took out four mobile phone contracts with network provider O2 claiming to be from Palmer's Building Services, based near Norwich.

Owner Lisa Palmer said O2 reassured her the case had been closed, but the debt has remained on the firm's credit file.

"The account was closed as fraud on 24 September," said an O2 spokesman.

"This should now be reflected on their credit report."

In September, Mrs Palmer told how O2 had been convinced that the four contracts had been taken out by her family business despite her protestations.

She claimed that every time she tried to communicate with O2 customer services over the phone, she was unable to pass the security steps as she did not know the passwords set up by the fraudster.

Mrs Palmer and her husband Liam were later contacted by debt collectors who threatened to take action.

On sharing her story, she was told on the phone that the account had been closed, the debt would be wiped and the credit file amended.

'Debt outstanding'

However, Mrs Palmer said the debt was still showing up on the report and they never received written confirmation of O2's actions, due within 30 days of the phone call.

"It's still showing up on the credit file that we're outstanding [on] that debt," she said.

"I know things take time but the fact we've not even received any written confirmation and it's been a while now, it's just been a worrying thing.

"If we're trying to take out credit for other things and then it rejects because of this, then this can affect things in the future."

Mrs Palmer said she had been unsuccessful in trying to resolve this latest matter on the phone with O2 as she did not "pass data protection" steps.

O2 previously said the account was "opened by sophisticated fraudsters using a substantial amount of the victims' personal data and identity documents".

The network provider has now asked the couple for more details about their individual case.

"We are writing again to Mr Palmer to confirm the action we've taken," said the spokesman.