23 February 2023 , 15:59
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A woman was left with a huge bill after her phone was stolen on holiday.
The unlucky British tourist was on holiday in Naples with her partner to celebrate their four-year anniversary when the mobile was lifted.
When she eventually received her next phone bill, it was far, far more than she could've imagined.
The thieves had pushed the bill to sky-high levels by calling premium numbers, the final figure owed totalling £20,973.
Because the Brit had failed to report the phone as stolen straight away, she was told to pay up by March 2.
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The woman's partner posted a picture of the O2 bill on Reddit and Twitter, along with speculation about how it had gotten so high.
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The final bill was something to behold"Looking at the itemised phone bill, it looks like they had some sort of autodialer, making conference calls to premium numbers, each call was around 20 mins, it seems obvious that it was a bot of some sort," he wrote.
"My partner has been so stressed she has been in tears the last few days and physically sick a few times. Like having her phone stolen wasn't enough."
On O2's website, people who have their phones stolen or lose them are advised to report it immediately.
"You must report a theft or lost phone immediately, as you're responsible for the cost of any calls, texts and data transfers made until it's blocked," it reads.
An O2 spokesperson said: "We have spoken with the customer and we have agreed to clear this debt. We'd ask any customer who has their phone stolen to report the theft to us as soon as possible.”
The woman is far from being the only British tourist who has found themselves significantly in debt after a holiday abroad.
John Nisill said he nearly fainted when he was told he'd run up nearly £200k in phone charges while on a four-day family holiday in Turkey.
The 40-year-old, from Skelmersdale in Lancashire, claims he pinged a few emails and spent just 16 minutes on the phone making calls during his trip to Marmaris in October.
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But the car salesman was left stunned when his boss called to tell him to switch off his phone because the "bill seems a little high".
John Nisill said he only spent 16 minutes on the phoneJohn said he nearly fainted when BT told him how much the 43GB of data he'd used would cost.
Because John is on a business contract, which includes just 250MB of data, no warning was given when he exceeded the limit.
A spokesperson for BT at the time said they would erase the huge bill after John's story was made public.
“We understand this is a very significant bill to receive, so, on this occasion, we are waiving the surplus roaming charges," they said.
“In this case, the customer was on a BT Business mobile plan which included a monthly data allowance of 250MB. When travelling in Turkey he far exceeded his agreed limit by consuming 46GB of data."