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

CARLO_2

Got a call from my credit card company asking if I had used my card with a travel company for $1, I hadn't so card was cancelled. Just received my card statement with £20 02 prepay on it from before above . Don't know who to blame for using my details, but only happened since buying from Dixons online.

realmanter

Add me to the list of people caught in this scam, £30 charge was made today via O2 top up. Called Lloyds and got my money bank and a new card. I would love to know where they got my details I haven't used the card anywhere online for a while (use my credit card for airmiles) and last used it in the city of London to take money out of a cash machine. I suspect these people work for the banks or are subcontractors of the bank. Similar thing happened at a travel firm I worked for, some temp was recording all the credit cards taken over the phone and then selling off the numbers. Shocking that this has been going on since the days of BTcellnet. Sort it out O2 you're a rung in this scam.

Lolly_B

I spotted a £30 debit to o2 prepay on my bank statement yesterday, and like many others here don't have an o2 phone. I decided to check previous bank statements as well (I normally just glance at them) and found another £30 had been taken by o2 back in October last year.

Today I went into my bank (HSBC) and was told that they couldn't do anything about the October debit as it's too late, and I'd have to take it up with o2 myself (which I will) but the most recent debit they will investigate and refund if it's found to be a fraudulent transaction (not sure how they confirm it is/isn't.) I also had to cancel my debit card and order another one, which is going to take a week to arrive.

As I had to try and sort out the October debit myself I asked the bank if they could tell me more details about the transaction. they were able to tell me it was done over the internet and gave me the exact time and date.

I was wondering if anyone else has tried to get their money back direct from o2, and how they went about it. Is my bank fobbing me off by saying October is too long ago for them to investigate?

I'm not very confident about getting my money back from o2 but I guess I should have checked my statements more carefully - I certainly will in future.

Why isn't anyone doing anything about all these fraudulent payments o2 are putting through? As far as I know this isn't happening with any other mobile networks to this extent so why aren't o2 doing something to prevent it?:mad:

SUPERJULES

Lolly_B wrote: »

I spotted a £30 debit to o2 prepay on my bank statement yesterday, and like many others here don't have an o2 phone. I decided to check previous bank statements as well (I normally just glance at them) and found another £30 had been taken by o2 back in October last year.

Today I went into my bank (HSBC) and was told that they couldn't do anything about the October debit as it's too late, and I'd have to take it up with o2 myself (which I will) but the most recent debit they will investigate and refund if it's found to be a fraudulent transaction (not sure how they confirm it is/isn't.) I also had to cancel my debit card and order another one, which is going to take a week to arrive.

As I had to try and sort out the October debit myself I asked the bank if they could tell me more details about the transaction. they were able to tell me it was done over the internet and gave me the exact time and date.

I was wondering if anyone else has tried to get their money back direct from o2, and how they went about it. Is my bank fobbing me off by saying October is too long ago for them to investigate?

I'm not very confident about getting my money back from o2 but I guess I should have checked my statements more carefully - I certainly will in future.

Why isn't anyone doing anything about all these fraudulent payments o2 are putting through? As far as I know this isn't happening with any other mobile networks to this extent so why aren't o2 doing something to prevent it?:mad:

I called my credit card company as soon as I received the statement and saw the transacation, the cc company informed me they had 30 days from when the transaction was made and in this time o2 has to prove it was a genuine transacation if not then they could get the money back, so perhaps it a 30 day rule.

PopeSock

I've just had one of these, too! But that's not all. The day before, I had an even bigger one.. for over two hundred quid from Orange! My bank has refunded the money pending an investigation... though they say it can take up to two weeks before an official decision!

Thrillho

Interesting thread this. I've just caught someone in work using customers credit card details to top up o2 phones and reading all the experiences from everyone here makes me feel less of a git about catching them out. I'm obviously not going to say where I worked but basically this horrid woman (who I never liked) got caught red handed stealing credit card details for her mates phones. She was dripping in gold jewellery and wore lots of orange make up and when caught whined about how she had kids to feed and she needed her job!

There seems to be a lot of blame towards certain companies here - I'd feel confiident using Paypal and Amazon and chip and pin machines. However I'd NEVER ever give my card details over the phone. I handle hundred of credit card numbers a week in work and wouldn't dream of doing anything with them, probably because I'm not a bloody scumbag. Online tends to be encrypted etc. so nice and safe as far as I can tell. Call centres employ bloody anyone and have a high staff turnover thus are perfect for scam artists to use for their scummy little ways. Companies do have procedures to stop theft of customer details but sometimes it takes a while for the theft being detected.

What I'd like to see is bloody o2 printing the telephone number of the phone that was topped up. At the very least it means the morons that buy cheap credit off people down the pub will get irate phonecalls.

Geoffo_M

Thrillho wrote: »

Interesting thread this. I've just caught someone in work using customers credit card details to top up o2 phones and reading all the experiences from everyone here makes me feel less of a git about catching them out. I'm obviously not going to say where I worked but basically this horrid woman (who I never liked) got caught red handed stealing credit card details for her mates phones. She was dripping in gold jewellery and wore lots of orange make up and when caught whined about how she had kids to feed and she needed her job!

There seems to be a lot of blame towards certain companies here - I'd feel confiident using Paypal and Amazon and chip and pin machines. However I'd NEVER ever give my card details over the phone. I handle hundred of credit card numbers a week in work and wouldn't dream of doing anything with them, probably because I'm not a bloody scumbag. Online tends to be encrypted etc. so nice and safe as far as I can tell. Call centres employ bloody anyone and have a high staff turnover thus are perfect for scam artists to use for their scummy little ways. Companies do have procedures to stop theft of customer details but sometimes it takes a while for the theft being detected.

What I'd like to see is bloody o2 printing the telephone number of the phone that was topped up. At the very least it means the morons that buy cheap credit off people down the pub will get irate phonecalls.

Interesting post - anf makes lots of sense. I paticularly like the idea od O2 printing the phone numbers that were topped up. Something is missing here though - why aren't O2 ever prosecuted or asked to return the stolen money? If they were given more hassle, they would make more effort to avoid benefitting from all these scams. British justice system at work again I suppose.

dontrun

I've just discovered 2 transactions for £30 on my Natwest online statement earlier on today: -

31-Mar-09 POS 30MAR09 0819 , O2(UK)LTD PREPAY , SLOUGH - £30
20-Apr-09 POS 18APR09 0437 , O2(UK)LTD PREPAY , SLOUGH - £30

I especially like ThrillHo's idea above - to give the number of the phone that was topped up on your statement. I do not understand why this is not done already! Then maybe these individuals could be tracked and caught, or at the very least it would make the job of cutting off their phones a lot simpler. I Certainly would like to give the number a call and speak with the person that answered!

I have reported this on the Watchdog site too, so maybe if enough people do hopefully they may do a story on it.

Thrillho

Geoffo_M wrote: »

Something is missing here though - why aren't O2 ever prosecuted or asked to return the stolen money? If they were given more hassle, they would make more effort to avoid benefitting from all these scams. British justice system at work again I suppose.

Well o2 don't commit the fraud themselves so there is no way they can be held accountable for it. Someone has simply used their website to top up a phone with stolen credit card details. I don't know if they repay the money - I would say they do repay it as otherwise credit card companies must be losing a small fortune. As for the British justice system, fraudsters caught doing these kind of scams do tend to get the book thrown at them.

I do think o2 are partly to blame and really should make people log in on their website before topping up. And they also need to state the mobile number in question on the transaction reference. I suspect a lot of transactions like this simply aren't noticed by the victims so o2 must benefit financially from having terrible security measures on their website.

Geoffo_M

Thrillho wrote: »

Well o2 don't commit the fraud themselves so there is no way they can be held accountable for it. Someone has simply used their website to top up a phone with stolen credit card details. I don't know if they repay the money - I would say they do repay it as otherwise credit card companies must be losing a small fortune. As for the British justice system, fraudsters caught doing these kind of scams do tend to get the book thrown at them.

I do think o2 are partly to blame and really should make people log in on their website before topping up. And they also need to state the mobile number in question on the transaction reference. I suspect a lot of transactions like this simply aren't noticed by the victims so o2 must benefit financially from having terrible security measures on their website.

I'm with O2, and I have to log in when I top up. But, of course, once you're logged in, it doesn't prevent you using whatever cc you want. O2 security measures are lax. You don't have to register your cc in personal details, nor do they use eg verified by visa. So it is no surprise fraudsters target O2. It seems wrong that there is no way they can be penalised from having such poor systems in place.