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A quick-witted man decided to play along when his cheeky pal put his phone number online claiming it to be for O2 refunds - and his responses are very funny.

Martin 'Mazza' Houston was left with more than 800 text messages from disgruntled customers seeking a refund after the day-long data outage on Thursday, reports the Daily Record.

Some 32 million people were unable to use their phones due to a technical fault, the operator said.

One youngster decided to poke fun at the outraged customers, by pretending to offer refunds to those affected - but listing his mate's phone number instead.

Ross Mackie, in Glasgow, posted: "ANYONE WITH O2.

"Call centre is inundated so they are telling people to txt "REFUND" TO [number redacted] and an agent will get back to you within 24 hours to issue a refund.

(Image: dailyrecord.co.uk)

"I just done it you get confirmation txt straight away.

"YOU GET £50 CREDIT TOWARDS YOUR PHONE BILL AS COMPENSATION. PLEASE SHARE."

And the unknowing public were happy to oblige, sharing the post and texting the number for their refund.

(Image: dailyrecord.co.uk)

(Image: dailyrecord.co.uk)

But Ross later revealed the number in fact belonged to his pal Mazza.

Not taking things too seriously, Martin, from Coatbridge, Scotland, decided to have a laugh of his own - coming up with hilarious responses, including "touch your toes".

"Congratulations you have now adopted a snow leopard at the price of £2.99," said another.

After his first post on Facebook, Ross joked about how Mazza has received more than 200 texts - but later came back with an update showing more than 800 messages from desperate customers hoping to get some cash back.

(Image: dailyrecord.co.uk)

(Image: dailyrecord.co.uk)

And giving his own update on the hilarious prank, Martin said: "Useless p***k of a pal thought he would be a funny c**t and put ma number on Facebook and make out a was 02 giving out £50 refunds... so said f**k it a will play along. 200+ texts later..."

On Saturday afternoon O2 confirmed they would be giving its pay monthly, small and medium business and mobile broadband customers credit for two days of monthly airtime subscription charges, to be issued by the end of January.

Pay-as-you-go customers are to be given 10% credit on a top-up in the new year, O2 said, adding it will let customers know when this is available.

O2 said pay-as-you-go mobile broadband customers would receive a 10% discount on a Bolt On purchase - which are additional call, text or data bundles that can be purchased at any time.

(Image: Getty Images)

"We're very sorry about yesterday's data issue. We understand how important it is to stay connected, especially at this time of year," a company spokeswoman said.

"We'd once again like to thank our customers for their patience. We're doing all we can to make sure this issue doesn't happen again."