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

WantsItAll4Free

kt01 said:

WantsItAll4Free said:

Not sure what the latest is on this?

I have had a Lyca Mobile account since March. All was going well until Monday. My bank alerted me to fraudulent Meta/Facebook advertising transactions at 8.30pm (starting off very small - one actually made it through to my card then the bigger amounts were stopped by the bank). Cancelled card. New card arrived yesterday (Wednesday). Updated my Lyca Mobile account and my Apple Wallet. Activated new card at around 3 or 4pm. 

7.15pm in the middle of my yoga class... bank is ringing again. Apparently Facebook advertising being charged to my new card!

New card cancelled after only being active for c.3 hours. This reeks of a problem with Lyca to me - I hadn't used my Apple Pay at all (not since Sunday).

Wow, if it's definitely Lyca it this sounds like they are actively taking customer's card details even though their data is still leaking actively?!

Perhaps you can test it by putting a virtual card or some other card onto just Lyca and not using it for anything else, or waiting until closer to your next bill before updating your Lyca account and seeing what/how long it is before anything happens?

Yes, honestly I've decided not to wait. My Lyca account was rolling 30 days which ends shortly. I've stopped auto renew and changed mobile supplier (my account is SIM only so much easier to do). 

Unfortunately the PAC number Lyca gave me did not work and so I couldn't take my phone number with me. I have therefore had to spend days changing my mobile phone number on various online accounts and with contacts too - has been very hard work all in all. Reading customer reviews online, there are lots of instances where Lyca customers cannot transfer their numbers to new suppliers. 

Given that I have doubts about their maintenance of my credit card data, I am also wondering whether other data may have been leaked. For this reason it actually seems necessary to change my phone number now anyway, painful as it is.

kt01

WantsItAll4Free said:

Unfortunately the PAC number Lyca gave me did not work and so I couldn't take my phone number with me. I have therefore had to spend days changing my mobile phone number on various online accounts and with contacts too - has been very hard work all in all. Reading customer reviews online, there are lots of instances where Lyca customers cannot transfer their numbers to new suppliers.

This is a known problem. You can get a working PAC code by contacting (or likely, fighting with) their customer service. 

Their failure to provide working PAC code via the text service isn't legal but who knows if Ofcom will do anything about it. HMRC certainly haven't done anything about their tax issues.

WantsItAll4Free said:

Given that I have doubts about their maintenance of my credit card data, I am also wondering whether other data may have been leaked. For this reason it actually seems necessary to change my phone number now anyway, painful as it is.

Understandable but painful. My number has been through Lyca in the past and I was hit the card fraud depsite not being on Lyca since 2022, so they clearly kept it on file somewhere (and I was only with them for a few months - found the O2 signal at the time not good enough for me, so left again).

On the other hand, I've always had good personal experience with Lebara, I've moved off a few times over the last few years but keep going back as their service just works and they seem as competent as the big networks (their customer service is far from perfect but no worse than what I've experienced from O2, Three or Vodafone over the years).

Largs

Got call from Royal Bank about BLOSSOM BOUNTY WORLD in Las Vegas, 9.95 and 114.00 and 149.00 which I know nothing about. This card is not used at ATM as she said it was likely skimmed there. Was with Lyca at time of data breach in October 23.  Their claim that only last 4 digits of card number was visible to hackers seems to be false.

WantsItAll4Free

kt01 said:

On the other hand, I've always had good personal experience with Lebara, I've moved off a few times over the last few years but keep going back as their service just works and they seem as competent as the big networks (their customer service is far from perfect but no worse than what I've experienced from O2, Three or Vodafone over the years).

Would have to agree with your comments on Lebara. Was with them for years. Unfortunately they don’t offer eSIM. Had to find another provider because I absolutely need two phone numbers. Then disaster ensued. I hope OFCOM do something about Lyca.

flaneurs_lobster

WantsItAll4Free said:

 I hope OFCOM do something about Lyca.

Is it OFCOM or would the payment providers (VISA/Mastercard) be more likely to act if Lyca are leaking the details of their cards all over the internet?

Contristador

As a family all three of us switched to different Lyca plans in April 24 (according to individual need). One after another all three of our payment cards have been compromised. Something is not right or being admitted to with Lyca.

WantsItAll4Free

Contristador said:

As a family all three of us switched to different Lyca plans in April 24 (according to individual need). One after another all three of our payment cards have been compromised. Something is not right or being admitted to with Lyca.

My bank know that I was a Lyca customer. Definitely mention it to your banks. Hopefully they’ll start to put wheels in motion. Also surely the Information Commissioner should be onto this as well. I think I’ll call them to report my suspicions. Very sorry to hear that all three of you were compromised. It’s very stressful. 

PHK

Given Lyca's denial, it's very important this is reported to the Information Commissioner and your bank. 

Ashen

Just found this thread after suspecting my Lyca account linked to recent fraud.

Last week I had a call about a transaction to FACEBK. This was a card used only for Lyca, Royal Mail and another mobile provider.

Today I got a text from a different bank about a transaction that failed due to insufficient funds, for about £105 for a foreign shop. There's also an Amazon transaction for £20 dated two days ago not from me. This card was also used for Lyca, and also to make savings account deposits in a UK bank.

SlothSunday1999

Hi,
So like others alike others I found this thread after having fraudulent activity on my card. 

I googled PONTOON SPECIALISTS and saw that many people had the same.
I was briefly with Lyca autumn last year but didn’t stay as it was terrible.
Ive also had much more spam and strange emails with my name and address in them .
Its worrying. Have new card and details after 15 years with no problem.
Lyca needs to be investigated.