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.

[Anonymous]

It might just be that someone has accidentally topped up your phone number instead of their's due to O2's wonky topup policy.

On the other hand it might be like my one where they opened/used a phone/sim account in your name then topped it up with someone else's card. They may also be referring to a debit card (if you have one) but calling it the wrong thing.

Suggest you talk to O2 and find out what card they are talking about. If normal customer services cannot help due to data protection or whatever then ask for their fraud department.

[Anonymous]

My daughter got out a mini statement from the Halifax bank today and wondered why there had been £30 taken out 2 days ago... on enquiring she found out it was from 02 prepay, thing is she is not on 02 for ANYTHING, nor is anyone else in the family. The bank have stopped her card and will refund her the money but it seems so wrong that people are doing this scam and obviously getting away with it as it is happening so much even after months of problems. So 02 might not be to blame exactly but surely they would want to try and stop it as it is giving them a bad name. The way I see it she was lucky that she wasnt on 02 because if she was she would have a much harder job of proving this was nothing to do with her.

[Anonymous]

Well now O2 have been letting this slide so long I've just been done by the thieving gits for 2 lots of £15 on O2 prepay...I'm not even with O2!!
To make it worse my mate was done by this same scam two weeks ago!!
How can O2 let this go so far before doing anything?! Useless company comes to mind!

[perksie]

This is nothing to do with O2, I'm not going to bother explaining it all again, but you may learn something from this thread by AndyManchester:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=10696
With a third of all the mobile phones in the UK being on O2 it's not surprising they're targeted more than the others, but it does happen to all the major companies.

[Anonymous]

Just to let you all know that today my debit card has been scammed and top ups have been made to O2 and Vodaphone. I googled and was amazed to see I'm not the first and am certainly not going to be the last. Shame you see these sites after the event 😞

[perksie]

Just to let you all know that today my debit card has been scammed and top ups have been made to O2 and Vodaphone. I googled and was amazed to see I'm not the first and am certainly not going to be the last. Shame you see these sites after the event 😞

Sorry to hear that, I hope your card issuer will sort it out quickly for you.