Suspect vat refund email

[Anonymous]

Today I receved an email saying "In response to an increase in VAT in the EU and currency changes, and as a result of last week's VAT-related price change, it has come to our attention that between Oct 2012 and Oct 2014 there was a system error which resulted in some of our customers paying the incorrect rate of VAT on some services.

This email had all my personal information, but asked me to follow a link to log into my account, has anyone else seen an email like this? The email looked legitimate, if anyone from O2 monitors this thread, please let me know how to report this.

[Beenherebefore]

But it hasn't been reported for quite a while, in fact for about 2 years !!....and, coincidentally, has re-emerged with the data release ?

[Cleoriff]

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@Beenherebefore wrote:

But it hasn't been reported for quite a while, in fact for about 2 years !!....and, coincidentally, has re-emerged with the data release ?

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you see not knowing this was an old scam...I automatically put the two together...:smileysad:

[jonsie]

At this stage it would be difficult to say that it can be connected to the same internal data breach but we on here long suspected that these password changes and phone ordering were done in collusion with O2 employees....allegedly. It seems a strange coincidence but we need to wait for any further reports of this type of fraud.

[Anonymous]

My MyO2 account has been hacked too and the email changed. I can't see any orders going through though.

I just had to create a new ID for this forum.

This is the most serious case I have ever come across and I work in IT security.

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My MyO2 account has been hacked too and the email changed. I can't see any orders going through though.

I just had to create a new ID for this forum.

This is the most serious case I have ever come across and I work in IT security.

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I didn't realise anyone had their email address changed as a result of this data breach?.. Maybe some of our experienced members will confirm....

[jonsie]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

My MyO2 account has been hacked too and the email changed. I can't see any orders going through though.

I just had to create a new ID for this forum.

This is the most serious case I have ever come across and I work in IT security. 

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I didn't realise anyone had their email address changed as a result of this data breach?.. Maybe some of our experienced members will confirm....

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This nearly always happens if a phone has been ordered fraudulently.

@Anonymousneeds to contact customer service if they haven't already done so.

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[Cleoriff]

Oh I see....I was really just thinking about previous posts about the data breach. (I hadn't considered the chance that phones would be ordered fraudulently)......as it hadn't been mentioned before (to my knowledge)

[Anonymous]

This sounds like it could be the start of the escalation in relation to the data breach. If o2 start to see fraudulent activity. ......

Isn't it about time o2 fessed up to this?

[Anonymous]

I got his email several times in january which had all the detailed personal info and reported it to o2. o2 claimed it could not have been their security breach and was probably a third party - eg had I used Carphone Warehouse. Carphone warehouse have emphatically denied it and it appears anyway that other mobile networks have not been affected by this scam.. Last week  some fraudster pretending to be me told o2 I had lost my phone and so my o2 blocked it immediately.  A few days later it happened again. It was hard to see why they would do that but now I know why. They had at the same time accessed my bank account and blocked my phone to stop me getting a text from the bank checking that I had changed my address and wanted a new debit card etc sent to it. Quite a sophisticated and dangerous scam. As far as I can see ONLY o2 could have the security breach which supplied the oriiginal EU VAT refund with my phone account details which might well also have included my dd account number.

Of course, getting in touch with a human being at the Fraud Department has proved almost impossible. The first phone number I was given by the on-line guru didn't work. Now I have been given another one but have

to wait until Monday to contact.

Meanwhile I am in touch with ActionFraud who are very helpful.

Would be interested to know whether anyone else who got the EU VAT refund scam has also had an attempted bank account take-over.

[Cleoriff]

If anyone else has had an attempt to take over their bank, I don't think it has been reported on here @Anonymous ?   There were many who posted with concerns about getting the email though....