MSE News: Bogus mobile top-ups could spell greater fraud danger

squished

The £30 charged to my credit card for an O2 PAYG top-up I didn't make isn't the end of the story.

I've now had emails welcoming/thanking me for signing up to some high value shopping sites I'd never heard of (BrandAlley and CDiscounts to name two).

I've never been to these sites, have not signed up and won't be able to access the accounts I'm supposed to have opened (because I didn't open them!).

My worry now is that somewhere, some thieving git has bought stuff I've no connection with in my name, and I'm dreading the prospect of receiving bills for stuff I didn't buy from sites I didn't visit.

Something needs to be done to make credit card fraud more difficult, and for those caught, they need more than just a slap on the wrist.

Anyway, just so I don't get myself in trouble, I'd better add that I don't know if the two (O2 fraud and the signing up to unknown shopping sites) are linked, but it looks bad however you look at it.

kdalwayskint

squished wrote: »

I've now had emails welcoming/thanking me for signing up to some high value shopping sites I'd never heard of (BrandAlley and CDiscounts to name two).

I've never been to these sites, have not signed up and won't be able to access the accounts I'm supposed to have opened (because I didn't open them!).

Hi Squished

have been doing any of the click things to get points for money? I just recognise Brand Alley, i have recently started doing the clicking thing and Brand Alley was one on there, I signed up to it, but wont be buying anything, not unless I win the lottery any way!!!

mebrey

The only way to bring O2 to account is for 20million people to latch onto the scam and benefit from it. The credit card companies would then react. OK, it's morally absurd but doing things the legal way has proved fruitless... its been 2 years since this was on CrimeWatch... which basically cited that its not a crime for O2 to do this.

staffie1

It would help if the O2 webpage when you do a web top-up was secure.
Just checked: "Contains Unauthenticated Content"
View the certificate and "Parts of this page (the page you enter your card number, etc) are were not encrypted before being transmitted over the internet. Information sent over the internet without encryption can be seen by other people while it is in transit"

Marvellous.

squished

kdalwayskint wrote: »

have been doing any of the click things to get points for money? I just recognise Brand Alley, i have recently started doing the clicking thing and Brand Alley was one on there, I signed up to it, but wont be buying anything, not unless I win the lottery any way!!!

Hi kdalwayskint,
I have done some competitions which might generate this stuff, but I use a "just for junk" webmail address for anything that might generate spam, then I know to ignore it.

This stuff came to me at my usual address, hence the problem of where they got my address from.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback - always good to be reminded that what you do on one site can have a knock on effect with others.

JaxMax_2

I got caught today for 2 x £15 PAYG Top Ups with 02. I've had to cancel my Debit Card and 02 have stopped the 'other' mobile phone that was fraudulently topped up using my card details.

My SIM card was fairly new, I bought it in February from an eBay seller who had pretty good feedback (was stuck in Ireland and no way of getting one otherwise for my phone while I was here). It looked like a new one when it arrived and I used the Web Top Up first time and everything seemed ok.

Then on the 12th March I tried to top up again using the Web Top up but had 2 x unsuccessful attempts, both were for £20. So I had to Top Up using my mobile (dialled 4444 or something like that) and had to enter my card details and address etc. I topped up by £25.00.

According to my statement (the transactions only came through on it today), on the 13th (the day after I had topped up) these 2 x £15 top ups were made to 02.

It seems a little coincidental that the day after I topped up over the phone, the dodgy transactions are made. Obviously they couldn't make them on the same day due to the £30 per day top up limit.

Is there some way that whoever sold me the SIM card could find out the details I keyed in when I topped up?

I'm dreading the next few days now as I don't know what might have been done between the 13th up to today when I cancelled the card. I can't even check my account online now because the card has been cancelled and it's those details I use to log on.

I'm extremely careful with any receipts I get, everything goes in the shredder, apart from which, the 02 Top Up was the only thing I used the card for in over a month.

Has anyone else noticed this has happened to them after topping up over the phone? Or after buying a 'new' SIM card from eBay (shudder - what was I thinking???)

AndyInYorks

Hi,

I used to have a job doing security callouts to customers whose cards had been flagged up due to "unusual" spending. The system often used to flag £1 transactions online because they are, as has been said, often scammers testing the card.

The amount of abuse I got off people was unbelievable. Why are you wasting my time over a £1? was a common question.

I do remember one guy who was so furious he told us never to bother phoning him again. We sent an indemnity for him to sign saying he'd be liable for all fraud on his card due to opting out of our fraud prevention measures. He signed it so the next time there were suspicious transactions we ignored them. He got stung to the tune of £2,000 and then wanted to know why we hadn't called him when we saw his card being used in South Africa...

SUPERJULES

JaxMax wrote: »

I got caught today for 2 x £15 PAYG Top Ups with 02. I've had to cancel my Debit Card and 02 have stopped the 'other' mobile phone that was fraudulently topped up using my card details.

My SIM card was fairly new, I bought it in February from an eBay seller who had pretty good feedback (was stuck in Ireland and no way of getting one otherwise for my phone while I was here). It looked like a new one when it arrived and I used the Web Top Up first time and everything seemed ok.

Then on the 12th March I tried to top up again using the Web Top up but had 2 x unsuccessful attempts, both were for £20. So I had to Top Up using my mobile (dialled 4444 or something like that) and had to enter my card details and address etc. I topped up by £25.00.

According to my statement (the transactions only came through on it today), on the 13th (the day after I had topped up) these 2 x £15 top ups were made to 02.

It seems a little coincidental that the day after I topped up over the phone, the dodgy transactions are made. Obviously they couldn't make them on the same day due to the £30 per day top up limit.

Is there some way that whoever sold me the SIM card could find out the details I keyed in when I topped up?

I'm dreading the next few days now as I don't know what might have been done between the 13th up to today when I cancelled the card. I can't even check my account online now because the card has been cancelled and it's those details I use to log on.

I'm extremely careful with any receipts I get, everything goes in the shredder, apart from which, the 02 Top Up was the only thing I used the card for in over a month.

Has anyone else noticed this has happened to them after topping up over the phone? Or after buying a 'new' SIM card from eBay (shudder - what was I thinking???)

I have had the £30 o2 top up happen to me, I've had nothing to do with o2 at all I have a contract phone with 3. It's an annoying mystery cos I'm so careful with my details

JLS3405

Just logged on to my bank and I have this £30.00, just called bank and they have stopped my card which is a pain but will stop me losing any more money...how are these scammers getting the card details? Incidently at work there are now 4 people in my team that have had card details copied/cloned...

I am very careful also and not a happy bunny!!

fatdeeman

I've just noticed this has happened 3 times on my account!

Two for orange and one for o2 all at £30 each.

I phoned hsbc and got a grilling including being asked if my wife had access to my wallet, I couldn't believe the nerve of the questioning!

The guy said he could sort the o2 one out right away but that because I have a direct debit with orange I would have to make a claim, even though it was obvious to anyone that the orange transactions were the same thing he claimed that because orange had my bank details they had to rule out human error somewhere on their side before they could treat it as fraud, I was told to "ring back in about 8 weeks and see if anything has happened"

I was furious! it was quite obvious that all 3 transactions were made by the same party but he insisted I had to wait 8 weeks to even hear if I would receive the other £60.

The strange thing is that after about 5 minutes the full £90 had been refunded back into my account, I'm not sure why, maybe someone with common sense approved it or they realised it was something that was already happening a lot.

I have a new card on the way and from what I hear a load of forms filled accusing questions, I'll be tempted to throw them in the bin, it's not my fault they cleared someone to illegally use my bank details.

I am amazed at how much this is going on without the people behind it being found out.