Fraud

[Lyndab]

I am an O2 pay monthly customer, and have been notified by my bank tonight that 2 payments of £30.00 have gone through on my credit card to O2 Pay as You Go,  before my bank blocked the card and notified me.  Then another 6 attempts were made for same amount £30 to O2 Pay as You Go........

I never use my credit card for 02 payments - my monthy bill is paid via direct debit.  

I assume payments taken were to top up credit on a mobile phone - and I assume therefore O2 can tell me (or the police)  the phone number and trace the owner...  Am I correct...?

Also my bank say that 02 Should refund the £60  is that correct?

Your thoughts would be appreciated. 

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

You need to contract customer service and report it and they will pass it on to the fraud dept.
If the police are interested they can contact o2 for specific details but they won’t tell you who it was.
http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

[Anonymous]

It could just as easily have been any other network payg or for anything else that costs less than £30 - it was pure chance that the person who has the card deciding on O2.

£30 is the limit for contactless transactions where no pin is needed. phone top ups can come up to excatly £30, and PAYG Sims can stay entirely anonymous and are easily disposed of -

If the bank's fraud department get better evidence they might get the police involved - but generally the old bill like to see a pattern of multiple cards used in multiple retailers to build up a sufficiently large case to make prosecution worthwhile. An opportunist nare'do'well only doing your card for 60 notes won't ring any alarm bells these days. 

Did you report the card as lost or stolen to the bank? Either way they should refund it less they suspect negligence or collusion. I would bend over backwards to make sure the bank is happy with everything.  Your agreement regarding your responsibilities in all this is with them, not O2.

I would keep O2 out of the loop, if I were you. The criminal defrauded you, the bank, the retailer and lastly O2. And getting O2 involved yourself will only complicate matters for the pay monthly account, as you have no evidence to speak of.

Banks still issue contactless- less cards if you want one. They are much harder to abuse if they fall into the wrong hands, and it will make the bank a lot more comfortable if you decide to change to one.

[Lyndab]

IThank you for your replies.  It is appreciated.

The card was not lost or stolen it was in my wallet with ne at the office, So I asked how the payments were requested and bank said by mail order or phone order...?   the  2 occasions that were authorised were both timed at 13.33. today with a further 6 attempts.

I appreciate that in the scale of things £60.00 is not a lot ( 3 years ago someone tried to use card details in Thailand for £2000 while I was in France.)

Obviously my card has been compromised somehow  and  has now been cancelled but am  am feeling vulnerable regarding my debit cards, so will cancel them all.

I will be reporting it by phone tomorrow.

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

I just topped up my own PAYG O2 sim on the automated 4444 line and what was needed was long card number, expiry date, CCV code from the back; house number and digits from post code card is registered too.. All automated. Max top up £30 -

'Now I'm registered and O2 has all my details - so not sure if unregistered cards are required to give more details?

However whoever did this, had to have had access to your card details which these days generally means the card itself and your address details.  Still not sure if O2 will be able to help as you don't have the mobile phone number but it might be worth reporting if you can speak to the fraud team in the uk directly - but as I say try to avoid linking this to your pay monthly account, especially when speaking to Customer Services in South Africa,

DONT RING FROM YOUR MOBILE - call 0344 8090222 for the PAYG team instead. Other than that folllow the advice here: 

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/safety-and-security/fraud-and-phishing-advice :

If money has been taken from your account, or from a credit or debit account, let your bank or card provider know immediately, and they'll stop any further use. They'll also tell you how to get your money back. You should report this to Action Fraud straight away.

If you think there's been some fraudulent activity on your O2 account, contact us immediately. It might not be fraud, but it's best to check.

[Cleoriff]

@AnonymousJust to pick up on the section about paying by card to top up.

Firstly any card has to be registered  before you can use it.Yes they ask for all those details you mention

.

However for  subsequent top ups using the same card the process is dfferent and much shorter.

ie 'Please key in the number you wish to top up followed by #'

'if you have used this card before to top up press 1 followed by #

Please give the last 4 digits of the card you want to use followed by #

Please give the three digits on the back of the card followed by #

Please key in the amount you want to top up in whole pounds from £10 to xxx followed by #

To confirm, the amount you wish to top up is £xx? If yes press 1 followed by # if No press 2 followed by #

Thankyou your top up has been successful.

Once you know the system you can cut off the IVR by anticipating the question before the IVR finishes the sentence. Then the whole top up process can take approximately a minute.

I have topped up my sons PAYG phone for years (using my contract phone)

[viridis]

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@Lyndab wrote:

The card was not lost or stolen it was in my wallet with ne at the office,

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Contactless by any chance?

I'd request a new card if I were you.

[jonsie]

This isn't a new problem. There are posts going back 10 years or more and though the issue isn't as prevent as it was, it has never gone away and rears it's head at regular intervals on here. How many have the same fraudulent transactions that we don't hear about?

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/Fraudulent-Prepay-activity/m-p/30039/highlight/true#M20547

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/HELP-TOPIC-Fraudulent-Transactions-O2-Prepay-Slough/td-p/3...

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/scammed-on-topup/m-p/190540/highlight/true#M20667

Now if I was a suspicious man.....