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

lamaar75

Iv'e been hit twice by this, both with Cahoot. They even replaced my card and I got hit again.
Both charges have been refunded but they took 6 weeks to be validated. They were both with O2 and for £15.

angelmumof2

My Halifax bank account was used by fraudsters last month. £160 in total was taken, made up of £10 - £30 top-ups to various phone companies. I received an automated phone call fom the Halifax asking me to get in touch. But again, I was unsure whether the call was genuine, it was only when I checked my account online I realised the money was missing. Halifax refunded the full amount but this was still an unpleasant experience which is frighteningly common.

AntyVal

I had this happen a few months ago, 3 £30 top ups for O2 taken. As DH and I are both with O2 I checked with them first, then contacted the bank. They refunded the money within 48 hours. The bank did later contact me to say that they had discovered that they were fraudulent transactions.. I still wonder how anyone could have got my details, I am very careful about my card and pin.I'm so grateful to Martin for his advice on checking bank statements. I probably would'nt have noticed otherwise. I did'nt realise how much of a problem this is.

martin123

Happened to me this weekend, £30 to O2 Friday and then another £20 on
Saturday.When i phoned Barclays on sunday the idiot that they employ asked me if i wanted my card stopping,he then went on to try and sell me house insurance.With all the unemployment in this country i don't understand why they have call centres abroad. :mad:

buckster

My OH got scammed with the o2 top up of £30 a few months ago. Got a call from credit card company and then realised another £840ish was paid to a council which was nothing to do with us. I don't believe it was a real council but just the name that they had called their merchant account. All got refunded in the end but caused a lot of stress. We are very careful with our cards and can't see how they could have got the info they needed to carry out the fraud.

sallymcp

This happened to me last March, I had three £10 top ups from O2 appear on my statement, i don't use O2 so i contacted HSBC immediately who cancelled my card and got me a new one, the money was refunded in about 4 days. Everytime time i set up a direct debit on my account HSBC write to me to check its ok, soat least they are keeping an eye on things
I have no idea how these people got my card details as i'm always very careful!

Like-a-Dream

Family member had a debit card fraud starting with a web site donation of £5 to Oxfam then £30 O2 topup then an O2 mobile phone purchase from Argos.

Oxfam admitted their site was "...used to check out card details".
O2 fraud department were totally indifferent and didn't respond or help in any way.
Argos security department were very much on the ball and stopped the delivery of the mobile because the person I spoke to in the security team had noticed a 'known fraud address' being used for delivery.

The bank and O2 couldn't have cared less! Our own investigation revealed that it was the theft of card details from Cotton Traders. When contacted, Cotton Traders were also totally unhelpful about the theft and just pointed to their press release saying they'd "improved security".

The point is, if we can't trust reputable names like Oxfam and Cotton Traders to operate 'strong and secure' web sites and to keep our card details totally secure the frauds are just going to escalate; A Bank manager admitted to me that fraud was already so high the banks don't want the public to be aware so they try and hush-up the extent of the frauds.

jebervic

I checked my abbey online banking last night and found an 02 prepay payment for £30 from my account, dated the 24th Aug, but the transaction took place on the 21st Aug.

Barely use this card, so god knows how they got the details?, just glad I spotted it.

finlay666

Got done this week, £20 on Vodafone and 12p to an American deaf charity

Hadn't actually used the card in a few weeks and had just received a replacement

Thankfully it was a credit card and should get a replacement asap

AnnS

Glad I read all this, was contacted by bank on Sunday saying there were suspicious transactions on my card. On checking the first one was for £1.50 a bus/coach transaction followed by two others for much larger amounts. Bank had declined a further transaction for £700+. They managed to stop one of the them going through so could have been so much worse. I only use secure sites with the verification step at the end, my card hasn't been out of my sight so am baffled. Have to say top marks to the bank for being on the ball though.

AnnS