Lebara Mobile UK’s data security is a serious concern.

TopCatUK76

Lebara’s data security is a serious concern.

Days after signing up, I received an email that appeared to be from Lebara. The email address I signed up with is not public, has never been on the Internet, is not shared with friends or family or work and so has never once recorded a spam or scam email. 

The senders email looked legitimate (no-reply@email.lebara.co.uk), genuine looking content, and links to Lebara’s website. However, it listed a phone number that is not mine and claimed I’d been on their network for 5 years and offering free data as a thank you. It stated “As a thank you for being a valued customer, we have credited 5GB FREE data to your account. You can use this free data for the next 30 days. Click here to log in and check your allowances.”

Despite the suspicious nature of the email, that link led to a legitimate Lebara website (t.info.lebara.co.uk/r/?id=[a string of numbers, letters and comma]).

I have two possible scenarios I can think of:

1. Lebara has a data breach, technical or human, where email addresses and potentially other personal details (phone numbers, addresses, payment details) are being leaked to scammers.

2. Lebara experienced a technical issue, which might not be resolved, and sent at least one email, likely more, containing personal mobile numbers to other customers.

Either way, this is a serious breach of data protection.

TopCatUK76

I have raised this with Lebara. Both over the phone and via live chat and both customer services people just kept repeating that it is impossible for Lebara to have a technical glitch or for anyone to not follow process properly. They just said to not click on the links. Them not take them breaching the UK take protection law seriously is alarming. They did not even ask to see the evidence I had. They just kept denying it was ever possible  

If anyone from money saving expert read this and wants to contact me to see my evidence and screen shots of my live chat with their customer services  I am happy to be contacted.

Detail_Merchant

This web page - https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/privacy-notice.html - has an email address -  dpo@lebara.com - and says you can make a request or complaint, by contacting them at that email.

elsien

TopCatUK76 said:

I have raised this with Lebara. Both over the phone and via live chat and both customer services people just kept repeating that it is impossible for Lebara to have a technical glitch or for anyone to not follow process properly. They just said to not click on the links. Them not take them breaching the UK take protection law seriously is alarming. They did not even ask to see the evidence I had. They just kept denying it was ever possible  

If anyone from money saving expert read this and wants to contact me to see my evidence and screen shots of my live chat with their customer services  I am happy to be contacted.

 Unlikely to be happening. This is not that type of forum.

jogger08

Hello TopCat   
Sorry to hear about your experience.
I have recently had an authorised sim swap with Lebara- ( who advised me to ignore the multiple emails telling me the sim was being swapped as it was 'a glitch and the wrong email was sent')  which, along with data harvesting and an email hack has led to my identity being used fraudulently, 2 bank accounts taken over and many credit applications- with four payments made to Lebara ( as requested by the criminals?) during this time- with 3 refunded by them- I wonder why?

They don't seem to even have a fraud department,or any processes for any errors or fraud at all, staff are not trained in responding to it, and - yes as you say just churn out standard replies. 
After contacting them multiple times and waiting 41 days, to no avail, it is now a complaint with 'Resolver' as Lebara have been absolutely useless, and not given me any information or reassurance or help. 
Bizarrely, their acknowledgement reply to my complaint on Resolver was a standard customer service style reply just like the one you quoted above.
It ignored my long complaint and story, referring to a recent query - probably made by whoever has taken over my account- and offering 2GB of data ! 

elsien

Resolver don’t do anything that you couldn’t  do yourself so it’s not really a surprise if you just get a similar email response.