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]

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.

You shouldn't be getting involved, its up to your card issuer to liaise with O2. You should be more concerned about how someone got hold of your card and security details.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for those replies.

Perksie & prking - 0870 generates income for o2 - it doesn't seem fair that they profit from my efforts to help them. And I don't have an o2 phone so 202 is no use to me.
I'm aware that it is the card issuer who refunds - I only contacted o2 as a courtesy and to do my bit to stamp out this scam. The o2 Customer Services person told me that o2 would like people who have been scammed to contact them so they could bar the mobile phone of the scammer, and they got the Fraud Dept to ring me. So they must be interested.

Regarding your comments about who someone got hold of my security details:

That would depend of course on what o2 request as verification. As I'm not an o2 customer I wouldn't know - but if you guys could tell me I'd be grateful.

Any Internet transaction will reveal the name and address, card number and CVI code to the retailer. If you've got an unscrupulous retailer (and clearly they exist) then you've got the potential for fraud. So if you've used your credit card to buy goods or services via the Internet you are at risk.

My main point was that if o2 are keen to encourage people to report the scam to them rather than just their credit card issuer, then why not make it easy and free.

[jonsie]

Any Internet transaction will reveal the name and address, card number and CVI code to the retailer. If you've got an unscrupulous retailer (and clearly they exist) then you've got the potential for fraud. So if you've used your credit card to buy goods or services via the Internet you are at risk.
My main point was that if o2 are keen to encourage people to report the scam to them rather than just their credit card issuer, then why not make it easy and free.

The only other information needed would be the expiry date of the card, which again would be available on any transaction.
I do sympathise, but this information can be obtained anywhere you use your card, petrol stations and restaurants seem to be particularly high risk. Point is, never let your card out of sight but anyone with access to these details where you have used your card,and that means anyone in any organisation where transactions are authorised on-line or over the phone, can pass those on to a third party.

In the case of topping up of mobile phones, I cannot get my head round the fact that these phones are not barred instantly whilst an investigation is carried out and any credit illegally obtained should be clawed back from these phones.

This has been going on for years and will probably carry on for years.

[Anonymous]

If you don't have a O2 phone then call 0113 202 5816, gets straight to the Fraud dept and is a landline number.

[Anonymous]

The point about not barring the phones straight away is that the fraudsters are clever. They will first of all top-up a few randon numbers (on different networks) to check its working before spending on what they want. So its not as straight forward to know who to block. Which is why this sort of thing should be left to the fraud department of the banks and the phone companies.

[Anonymous]

SLB: Thanks for the 0113 number - I'll use it.

prking: Aha, I see - the fraudsters are a canny lot. More canny than me anyway!

stevyjones: Ta for that. It's a frustrating business right enough.

I suppose I could return to the good old days of only using paper money & coins. But I'd probably end up being pick-pocketed!

I'll await a technical solution from the banks - the amount frauds like this are costing them, they must have it as a priority (along with big bonus's and rewarding failure).

Ho Humm & Thanks To All.

[jonsie]

I'll await a technical solution from the banks - the amount frauds like this are costing them, they must have it as a priority (along with big bonus's and rewarding failure).
Ho Humm & Thanks To All.

Thanks to Cur (oops, I mean Sir) Fred, my bonus this year went the same way as the tax payers money. Mind you, I can now claim to be part-owner of a major banking group!!

SplittingDistant, I'm sure you will get a satisfactory outcome.

[Anonymous]

for those concerned about paying for stuff on the internet, why not use the new o2 money card. just put on the card as much as you need to pay for an item and if some dodgy company gets your card info they or their employees or hackers wont be able to milk your bank account.

[Anonymous]

The thing is other networks often require the card to be registered in the same name as the phone or atleast to the same address (eg. Virgin are pretty strict). Virgin also limit the number of phones/sims than can be associated with one card. I even had to jump through a few hoops when we'd had a phone replaced under warranty and went over the count.

This even caught out a scam that tried to use my card in creating a fraud filled phone as virgin rejected the topup but tied the new sim/phone to my account/address details. I queried getting the welcome pack in a different name and they found the sim had gained a massive set of presumably fraudulent topups. It got shut down fast. At the same time though my card details were used to topup two other phones/networks that I then had no relationship with - O2 and Vodafone. That took longer to sort out with the bank.

The problem with O2 PAYG is massive as they do not appear to require the phone and card to be associated in any way. Its useful when you want to topup your children's phones but much more useful to fraudsters.

[Anonymous]

I received a text message today from O2 UK ltd informing me of a transaction of £15 being put on my credit card, only problem being - I don't even have a credit card?

From all of the things i've found overe the internet of this scam it has been taken from legitimate accounts, does this mean someone has opened a credit card in my name/with my address etc?? and then someone has cloned it?

Spoke to the police earlier too and they told me just to be vigilant?

What can i do?