02 pre pay debit card scam

[Anonymous]

I was looking through my statement and a transaction of £30 was debited from my account today from 02 pre pay LTD.
I have a monthly contract with 02 but had already paid my bill this month. I rang 02 up and they said it looked like I had been scammed.
I have cancelled my card and spoken to the fraud department in my bank who have said I will get my money back and have to fill in a form they will send me. Has anyone else been had by this?
I have googled 02 pre pay scams and its seems lots if people have had the same thing happen to them.
The fraudster will 'top up' two or three times to see if you notice money has gone, if you don't check your statements regularly then they will take a huge chunk of your cash.
Is there nothing that can be done about this? Why does 02 let people top up any phone with any card and ask for no verification? There are so many people having money taken from their accounts. Why can 02 not make it safer as there is obviously a reason their company is being used as a host for these fraudsters.
I know other companies have been used for this but 02 seems to be the worst.

[jonsie]

There has been quite a few threads on this type of fraud and has been a concern for o2 customers who top up by debit card. One of the threads below:

viewtopic.php?t=10696&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=fraud&start=15

[Anonymous]

Yes it may be the same issue but that post is from 6 months ago. I am talking about something that happened this morning to me and needs sorting out soon.
It obviously hasn't been if you are referring me to old posts.

[perksie]

Yes it may be the same issue but that post is from 6 months ago. I am talking about something that happened this morning to me and needs sorting out soon.
It obviously hasn't been if you are referring me to old posts.

Needs sorting by whom?

This is between you and your bank/card issuer, not O2.

If a fraudster has all the correct details to make a payment then any retailer will accept it.

[Anonymous]

Yes it may be the same issue but that post is from 6 months ago. I am talking about something that happened this morning to me and needs sorting out soon.
It obviously hasn't been if you are referring me to old posts.

Needs sorting by whom?
This is between you and your bank/card issuer, not O2.
If a fraudster has all the correct details to make a payment then any retailer will accept it.

Exactly, some people need to take more care with their private information.
For the transaction to go through the fraudster will have known the address and security details.

[Anonymous]

I agree, its amazing how people automatically blame O2 for someone getting hold of their personal card / address details.

and BTW the old thread still contains the same information, so you can work out how this has happened and the process to follow to resolve this.

[Anonymous]

This may be something different but I had an email from O2 in association with NatWest for a Visa card which you top up to use.

I was about to sign-up for this but Firefox told me the security certificate was invalid and belonged to another site so I thought better of it.

Kat

[perksie]

This is a quirk of the O2 website.

It is genuine about the Cash Manager card, I have applied for one myself.

[Anonymous]

You might think that if o2 were serious about stamping out this scam they would provide a simple and free method for victims to report the abused card details (once the card is blocked and with their bank's permission of course) so that the illegally topped up number could be blocked.

You might think that, but you'd be wrong!

When this happened to me recently I reported the incident to the o2 Fraud Office via the o2 Customer Service number which is an 0870 number (thereby generating income for o2).

When the Fraud Office called me back 2 days later I had not had the OK from my bank to release the card details, so I asked if I could phone them back when I had the banks OK. Certainly they said, ring us back on another 0870 number. I protested that I was trying to help them by reporting the fraud, so why should I have to pay 0870 rates, but the 'operative' was adamant that I would have to ring the 0870 number.

So my 'reward' for assisting o2 in their duty of care to prevent fraud was that I'd have to pay Lord knows how much making TWO 0870 calls.

I didn't take advantage of this 'offer', and I won't be using o2 for any of my communication needs in the future as it's left me wondering how serious o2 are about fraud prevention.

[perksie]

The 0870 number to CS is charged at "National Rate".

202 from your mobile is free.

This incident is between you and your card issuer anyway, while O2 may help it is not really their concern.

If someone has skimmed your card or otherwise obtained enough information to make a charge on your card, this can only be dealt with by the card company involved.