Avoid Lebara

Piperoscar

I have used Lebara for several years and recommended them to many people. 
Last Thursday I got a notification asking me to verify a payment of £495 from my Tsb account to "Lifestyle" (who?). This never went through as I have no money in that account! 
I later found that my sim had failed and my Tsb app was blocked.
I drove 10 miles to my nearest Tsb branch who told me I was blocked because the criminal with my number had failed the security questions but he had created for me a new email address and London street address (which they would not tell me) and applied for a loan. This was denied and they shut down all Web contact. 
I do not understand how easy it was to port away my phone number without telling me.
The same thing happened to my brother using Lebara,  are other phone providers the same or is it just Lebara to be avoided? 

bjorn_toby_wilde

Piperoscar said:

I have used Lebara for several years and recommended them to many people. 
Last Thursday I got a notification asking me to verify a payment of £495 from my Tsb account to "Lifestyle" (who?). This never went through as I have no money in that account! 
I later found that my sim had failed and my Tsb app was blocked.
I drove 10 miles to my nearest Tsb branch who told me I was blocked because the criminal with my number had failed the security questions but he had created for me a new email address and London street address (which they would not tell me) and applied for a loan. This was denied and they shut down all Web contact. 
I do not understand how easy it was to port away my phone number without telling me.
The same thing happened to my brother using Lebara,  are other phone providers the same or is it just Lebara to be avoided? 

It's not just you.

On Monday morning my phone lost mobile signal and my wife started to get messages on her phone about unauthorised activity on our bank account and credit card.  The criminals had also tried to set up a payment for just below £500.  Thankfully, like you, they failed bank security and I didn't lose anything but the sheer ease with which they were able to steal my number from Lebara was breathtaking.  Lebara were unable to explain how they allowed it to happen over the phone and I'm waiting on the results of my written complaint.

The Lebara deals may be cheap but they could cost you a fortune if you're scammed because of lax security.

Isolis

My number ported away from Lebara yesterday. Aside from the initial text with my PAC code, there has been no notification from them about the porting completion, either by text or email.

t0rt0ise

Isolis said:

My number ported away from Lebara yesterday. Aside from the initial text with my PAC code, there has been no notification from them about the porting completion, either by text or email.

You won't get any notification from Lebara. It's the new supplier you should hear from. Good luck if you want any refund from Lebara. They aren't keen on paying.

Isolis

t0rt0ise said:

You won't get any notification from Lebara. It's the new supplier you should hear from.

Might be useful to detect when a number is ported out without permission, similar to when broadband is switched and the losing supplier contacts the customer.

dcman

Anyone trying to port their number via PAC should  read the SPUSU -Exceptioanlly dangerous risk  post on this website, as the danger highlighted there is VERY REAL from ALL the networks

SDMSE

I signed up for a Lebara deal through MSE which offered a gift card after 6 months of payments. I received nothing at 6 months. At the start of April I called customer service and they had no idea that the promotion existed! They gave me a 'reward' number to call. Someone answered but said it was nothing to do with them and that they would escalate the complaint on my behalf. After that I was receiving frequent phone calls saying the problem was with the back end team and they would call me again to up-date me. Then since the start of May I haven't heard a thing from them. No gift card and no contact. I feel i am wasting my time talking to different customer service staff all of whom apologise for the inconvenience but none can resolve the problem. I completely agree with the threads title: AVOID LEBARA

Frozen_up_north

While no security is 100%, if you set up 2 factor authentication it should help avoid anyone hacking your account.

1p Mobile include 2FA with a 6 digit number sent by email. Not sure about security measures with other networks.

danco

I'm not sure that the problem is with hacking into the account. The information I have read suggests that if someone has most of a user's details then they can phone and get a SYM swap to them. Various articles suggest that one should set up an extra password to prevent this, but none indicate what networks all you to set up such a password.

sdduk

I think its just an odd thing in the porting because i have never had any problem's porting my numbers to them and i have been with them for about 4/5yrs and ported about 20 numbers to them, just getting good deals thats the reason i have ported so much….. I have 2 35gb sims and a 50gb sim at the moment.