My O2 account was hacked!

[Anonymous]

A couple of weeks ago I received an odd text from O2 informing me that I can upgrade my handset in September 2013. Now, I have a sim-only contract and haven't had a new handset from O2 in a number of years but I knew my contract was due to expire some time in late September so I checked my O2 account online. It seems that I now have a new tariff of £36 a month, which I knew nothing about and checking on down the page I spotted a completed order which turned out to be for an iPhone 4. Naturally I hadn't placed this. The Yodel tracking number revealed that it had been delivered to an address that wasn't mine the previous day.
I called O2 and discovered that my security question had been changed along with my home address and e-mail address. Someone had clearly managed to access my O2 account online and ordered himself a phone at my expense. Since the user name and password are known only to me, either O2's site security is extremely poor or someone inside O2 has accessed my information. Either way, I'm not impressed.
The customer service adviser was very helpful and promised that the fraud department would investigate and call me. However, eight days later I have heard no word from them and in the meantime I can do nothing about changing my contract while there is an issue with my account. I was planning to get a new phone, possibly the new iPhone when it comes out, but now I'm very concerned about O2's security. I've been with them for over ten years but I'm seriously considering whether I want to continue with them now.
The only piece of good news is that the phone was delivered one day and blacklisted the next.
Has anyone else had this happen? If so, how did O2 handle it?

[Anonymous]

Further update in case anyone is interested. I have today received written confirmation from O2 that my account was used to obtain goods fraudulently. That is the good bit. However, on restoring my account to its original tariff, 02 reduced my minutes pro-rata to take account of the fact that for a couple of weeks I was on the fraudulent tariff. So instead of having 100 minutes for this month I was automatically reduced to 51 minutes. This was unfair because I do not use my phone much and would have had most of that 100 minutes remaining. i have spoken to O2 about this and they advise that their system will not allow them to restore the full minutes - only the pro-rata reduction. The lady I spoke to agreed this was unfair and said that, provided I do not exceed 100 minutes over the rest of the month, I will not be charged extra. So my short point is that, if anyone else is caught out by this sort of scam, it is worth just checking that O2 have restored your account appropriately. If you do not you may find that you incur additional charges.

[perksie]

Thanks for posting back with the outcome.

Well I'm glad they resolved the main issue for you, as I posted earlier it was about 3 months before my account and billing was back to normal, so keep an eye on it.

As part of the fraud recovery my direct debit was stopped so I had to make a couple of payments directly until that was renewed.

[Anonymous]

my account was also hacked 3 weeks ago. the fraudulent order is still on my account. My tariff is now stating that I cannot change it til 2014.

I get no joy at all from the "gurus" and am sick of phoning the fraud department.

I sent them an email and told them if its not sorted by the end of May I will cancel not only my account but husbands, and daughters too.

[perksie]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

my account was also hacked 3 weeks ago. the fraudulent order is still on my account. My tariff is now stating that I cannot change it til 2014.

I get no joy at all from the "gurus" and am sick of phoning the fraud department.

I sent them an email and told them if its not sorted by the end of May I will cancel not only my account but husbands, and daughters too.

---

The order will have been cancelled but it can take a while for their systems to update, so you will need a little patience, but I have no doubt they will sort it out for you.

Please don't unilaterally close any contract account though as that would impact your credit rating and cause you more grief than anything else you could do.

Unfortunately large companies like O2 cannot move very rapidly, but they get there in the end.

My account is now clean and I've lost nothing.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the advice perksie. am just so angry that my account was hacked.
it was kind of my own stupid fault. I was sent what I thought was a genuine email from O2 and it wasn't.
still feel stupid though

[perksie]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
thanks for the advice perksie. am just so angry that my account was hacked.
it was kind of my own stupid fault. I was sent what I thought was a genuine email from O2 and it wasn't.
still feel stupid though

---

It's not your fault, in my case the order was placed over the phone by the thief, luckily I got an email notification right away and phones it in.

I believe security has been improved so that one shouldn't happen again.

It's scary when someone tries to steal your identity, I know what I'd like to do to them.

[Anonymous]

I am more annoyed that I keep being passed from person to person - then the gurus say they can help then they can't. I was passed to 7 different people when I tried recently.
The tariff the thief wanted is still listed as mine. I even have the address where the fraud order was going to. Luckily I stopped it within 10 mins of the order being placed but have still had no joy with O2 or the fraud department

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear you account has been hacked 😞

This is something that would need to be dealt with by the Fraud Department though. Are they currently investigating this for you?

[Anonymous]

My account was also hacked, they stole my upgrade from an o2 store in London. I'm furious about this, how does this happen? Are there no photo ID requirements? I am furious and will be terminating my contract with o2 as soon as the fraudulent contract has been removed which looking at your rubbish systems which seem to work by clockwork and steam might not be updated for a while?

I will never pay o2 another penny. I already have reported this matter which seems very frequent to the BBC watchdog program. People need to know that o2 is open to abuse and security is not a major concern, until you have been hacked then you are made to jump through hoops to try and prove who you are. Way to shut the stable door O2.

[MI5]

All this speculation about how the accounts were hacked is missing one vital point.... The scammers have to target accounts that are due an upgrade, so how do they know ????