An Optus customer’s privacy panic after discovering she had signed up a new customer using her mobile number – while rejecting the telco’s response

A customer has criticized the ‘incredibly stressful’ experience she had when Optus gave her phone number to someone else.

Sarah, not her real name, was in “an almost panic attack” when she received a strange message on November 10 welcoming her to the telco – but addressed to a different name.

The Melbourne woman had previously transferred her mobile number from Optus to another provider in May.

“I tried calling Optus but I couldn’t get through to anyone,” she said.

Then she started receiving calls that weren’t meant for her and getting verification codes for multiple apps.

Sarah went to an Optus store after being locked out of her Uber account on Monday amid fears she was being scammed.

An Optus employee told her that a new customer had been signed up with the exact same mobile number, but they did not have the authority to close the new account.

She was told to wait for someone to make contact.

When she started receiving verification codes for WhatsApp, “she started to panic.”

“I realized my WhatsApp was full of very personal photos and videos of my birth,” she said ABC Radio Melbourne.

“I have two young children, I have a new baby and a toddler, and I tried to call multiple people to get this resolved.

“I had to get my partner home early from work to help me because I couldn’t cope because no one was listening to me,” Sarah added.

“I wasn’t hacked; Optus gave me my number.’

Sarah said she was in a ‘panic attack-like state’ after receiving verification codes for a host of apps, fearing the other person could access her WhatsApp, which contained personal photos and videos (stock image)

The frustrated customer tried calling the telco again on Tuesday, but to no avail. Instead, she was told to wait for a case manager.

“It wasn’t until I started sending emails to Optus executives, trying to contact everyone I could, that anyone actually responded to me,” Sarah said.

The company canceled the other person’s account and offered her two months of her previous plan as compensation.

“We have contacted the customer to apologize and rectify the situation,” a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

‘We regret that a customer’s experience on this occasion did not meet the high standards that Optus strives for for our customers.’

This comes as CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faced a Senate investigation on Friday following the massive outage on November 8.

This comes as CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faced a Senate investigation on Friday following the massive outage on November 8

Customers across the country woke up to no service after servers crashed around 4 a.m. following a “routine software upgrade.”

Ms Bayer Rosmarin apologized for the disruption and voiced criticism, accusing her of not publicly responding to the issue that day.

She said she focused on prioritizing the team’s “actual crisis response” rather than addressing the media. ABC reported.

“Given how little information we had about the cause and possible recovery time, we could at least rule out the possibility of malicious activity to reassure our customers and the nation,” the CEO said.

About 8,500 customers and small businesses have reached out to claim compensation, with $36,000 already ‘paid out’.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin said she would have to “double check” whether that would be in cash or in other services, such as the additional data packages provided.

She confirmed she has no plans to step down as head of Optus.