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

WWitch

Glad you got your money back LinD!

As for catching the fraudsters...you'd think they could if they've used card details to top up a mobile...surely they are able to trace the mobile number? I hope they at least can block the mobile!

BigAl94

Happened to me today but caught by my bank who phoned me this morning to query a transaction - £30 top up on a Vodafone - don t have any payg phones. They said they would refund me and cancel the card. Funny thing is that particular card is only ever used to fund a Paypal account and a wine club payment each quarter - never used otherwise.

JohnnieStar

This has happened to me tonight. Im so dissapointed in myself as Im so careful about using my card. Rang the bank as I noticed I had £0 avaliable on my internet banking and there is a transaction for £30 to o2 due to go out tomorrow. They have cancelled my card and told me to ring back tomorrow to see if the transaction goes through or not. I recently used Amazon for the first time so I am wondering if it could be that? But have used my card a lot online the last few days. Im feeling so down, Im not having a great time lately now this! x

rb10

JohnnieStar wrote: »

I recently used Amazon for the first time so I am wondering if it could be that? But have used my card a lot online the last few days. Im feeling so down, Im not having a great time lately now this! x

Please don't blame Amazon, or any of the other sites that you've used. Whilst there is a tiny, tiny possibility that one of these instigated the fraud, the most likely reason is that they had nothing to do with it.

Fraudsters can generate thousands of random 16 digit card numbers. Every now and then, one of these happens to be a genuine card. In this case, it happened to be yours.

Nothing to do with Amazon, or actually using your card anywhere at all.

JohnnieStar

The only reason I bought up Amazon is because somebody else had mentioned it. I dont think you can rule out using on line retailers or shops or anything. When I rang my rent office to tell them about it, it was the second time they'd heard it today. So could be somewhere around my area. It happened last year at a petrol station, £1000s got taken from peoples accounts.

rb10

JohnnieStar wrote: »

I dont think you can rule out using on line retailers or shops or anything.

Nope, can't rule it out.

It's just statistically very unlikely to happen.

swedehead

just been done for £20 o2 top up and £20 vodafone. had an automated message from barclaycard about transactions so card was instantly blocked. can somebody please confirm one way or the other about the need for confirmation of billing address when topping up using a credit card.i do not use this type of service so i dont know how it works.

10_66

swedehead wrote: »

...can somebody please confirm one way or the other about the need for confirmation of billing address when topping up using a credit card.i do not use this type of service so i dont know how it works.

I rarely use a mobile 'phone so use PAYG and when I top up I ring the top up credit number and during the automated system all that is asked about my address is to confirm the numbers contained in my postcode.

rb10

10_66 wrote: »

I rarely use a mobile 'phone so use PAYG and when I top up I ring the top up credit number and during the automated system all that is asked about my address is to confirm the numbers contained in my postcode.

Been ages since I topped up by phone now (normally do it in Boots to get Advantage Card points), but I'm fairly sure Orange don't ask for any details of your address.

pmduk

Orange and Three both require you to register a card in advance. With orange the card can be used immediately, with three however, there's a gap of 7 days before you can use it, supposedly for security checks. O2 just ask for your postcode numbers. Not sure about the others.