LycaMobile Users: Had card fraud/attempted card fraud recently?

sunhasgotitshaton

I have had some fraudulent transaction made against a virtual card i only created and used for Lyca. STRONG MARRIAGE. 
I have seem other people stating they have had the same problem so it is clear that Lyca had a data breach and that the CC details and whatever else has been stolen and people should be aware. 
Maybe MSE can highlight this issue or investigate more

There are plenty of posts on HOTUKDEALS and ISPReview but it wont let me add them

sunhasgotitshaton

Yep had a few, i used virtual cards on the offers they were doing so have terminated the cards but no doubt someone has all our personal details due to lack of Lyca security

darkman13

xzsh29 said:

I signed up for a LycaMobile plan in March 2024, I used a virtual card created exclusively for LycaMobile and even named it Lyca, cancelling it after my purchase. While travelling this week, Monzo alerted me that a company, Hamilton Hardly Publish, had performed an active card check on the card. Followed the next morning by another company, World Market Ecomm.

I'm not the only person who had a card compromised, where that card was exclusively used at LycaMobile, see x.com link below

I posted on a forum related to mobile deals, the Monzo community forum and looked on Twitter since I highly suspected LycaMobile had been breached again - including the leak of card details this time. I quickly found other Lyca Users who were seeing attempted charges from other USA based merchants, the same ones as mentioned above and some more like Strong Marriage Now, Frenchies & More

Lyca claim they only store the card number (encrypted) and expiry date, and Monzo confirmed the attempted transactions were only made with the card number and expiry date.

I can't post the relevant links I had here, but to find them you can look for:
Lyca Mobile: Blatantly Compromised on the ISPReview Forum
Look at @tameraktas's thread with LycaMobile on X/Twitter.com

See the "LycaMobile Users: Had card fraud or attempted card fraud recently?" thread on the UKPersonalFinance subreddit

Despite the above, LycaMobile claimed they hadn't had any direct customer complaints. I emailed their fraud and complaints email on the 14th & 15th, as did many other ISPReview commenters, including complaints directly to the ICO. Lyca responded directly and publicly to a complaint on X on the 13th.

I'm wondering since this forum is likely to hold some people who signed up to Lyca's amazing deals at some point, if you've been seeing attempted fraudlent transactions including the following merchants?
Hamilton Hardly Publish
World Market Ecomm
Strong Marriage Now
Pontoon Specialists
Frenchies And More/Frenchies & More
SoDick Inc

Hi,

I’m @tameraktas on x and i can confirm that lyca was the company of the source for my card leaks. I got two e sims for my self personal and junk number that i give out to companies. Same for my wife and same for my two children. Got the same to my mum and to dad too. It was a very good deal after all 200gb ee speeds for £10, second line just a 45p pcm package that i deleted the card for to just have the number that i was going to use as junk number. Now if you times 2 for 6 people that’s 12 e sims and i done them in batches of two as stated the junk number deleted the cards.

 My online safety that i passed on to my kids are; Have two identities one your natural real identity for banks and official stuff one fake name, email, number and date of birth with a random bank address as your home address to all other companies where you can change the address of you are expecting a delivery.. I have always used a junk card online and since Monzo came up with deletable virtual card i started using that for companies that i never 100% trusted. This part was the more do it this way to secure your self online part; never cross use the same passwords or emails, don’t forget you not the same person you have two identities! 

About three weeks a go i realised all of a sudden i got a transaction on a deleted card from strong marriage now. As soon as i saw that i deleted my current lyca virtual card. To my expectations that card was attempted as well, as soon as that happened i called my family members and got them to delete their cards on Starling and others to report credit card lost/compromised with immediate freezes. I then realised for the next two weeks, even two yesterday, attempts on my deleted. I have now moved from lyca and will only go with ee, o2 or Vodafone. All others too risky. I still have my junk number on lyca and will continue with that however do take action on your routine and pass the information to others in order to help others understand how to keep safe online and also not to trust the cheap alternative! 

Peter999_2

I have suffered the same.   A credit card that I only use for Lyca Mobile has been compromised and someone has spent money on it.      It didn't dawn on me that it could be Lyca but I'm now very suspicious.

I've cancelled the credit card and am getting a new one with a different number sent.

Pturtle

Woke up to find that overnight my bank has stopped a charge of $0.00 to PONTOON SPECIALISTS. 

A Google of that name brought me to this thrrad

Perhaps unsurprisingly I was a customer of Lyca between September and December of 2023

Very concerning 

PHK

It’s interesting that many of these relate to AFTER they had the data breach last year. Which strongly implies their poor security has been breached again. 

MSE_ForumTeam5

Hi @sunhasgotitshaton we've merged your post into the ongoing thread on this topic

MSE_James

A further statement from Lyca

We are aware of comments online from Lyca Mobile customers who have experienced unexpected transactions on their payment cards.

We have conducted a thorough review, and there is no evidence that confirms there has been any unauthorised access to our systems. However, we advise customers to remain vigilant and to monitor any credit/debit cards used for suspicious activity.

We understand this will be stressful for anyone affected, but we want to reassure customers that the security of their data remains our highest priority.

PHK

This doesn't make any sense. If virtual cards that have only been used for Lyca have these authorisations then it must have come from Lyca. 

I would suggest people report this to their bank ASAP.  

xzonek

Pturtle said:

Woke up to find that overnight my bank has stopped a charge of $0.00 to PONTOON SPECIALISTS. 

A Google of that name brought me to this thrrad

Perhaps unsurprisingly I was a customer of Lyca between September and December of 2023

Very concerning 

Same thing( and same vendor PONTOON SPECIALISTS) happened to me this morning, and google brought me to this thread too. I was a lyca customer between Feb and Apr 2023, and my card was rarely used in online shopping.

Luckily my bank stop the payment this morning . After I contact the customer service, they cancel my card and reissue a new card for me.