o2 Money Card 24/7 Helpline WARNING

Fantom J

I would like to bring to the attention of all o2 Money Card holders to an incident that happened to me over the weekend. I have an o2 money card ( i.e prepaid Visa card ) which I use for purchasing items on-line. Over the past week I have been topping up my card for a purchase I was planning on making at the weekend. The last top-up I made was Friday evening just after 6pm, came home and checked the new balance on the card and everything was fine. Saturday lunchtime I was about to make my online purchase, so I checked again the balance on my o2 card only to find that the balance this time was less €789.99 and also €21.72 for foreign currency exchange for a transaction made sometime Saturday morning to an American company. To my horror I realised that my card had been used fraudulently by someone else. I immediately called the o2 customer service number to make them aware of what had happened, only to find that there office is closed at the weekend but there was a pre-recorded message stating that if your card was lost or stolen to press option 1 on your phone keypad to report this matter immediately. After pressing option 1 I got another pre-recorded message stating that "The Circuit was busy please call back again later" and then the line goes dead. I continued trying to call this number for over an hour, constantly getting the same message. At this stage I decided to contact o2 mobile phone customer care to see if they could help me. The lady that took my call was very sympathetic and went to see if she could find any different numbers that they might have on file, but all she had was the same numbers that is listed on there website for the 24/7 lost or stolen cards. She advised me to email them letting them know what had happened and also to keep trying the number until i got through as I need to bring it to their attention urgently. I tried again for a further 2 hours only to keep getting the same pre-recorded message. At this stage it dawned on me that I still had a balance on my card, so I decided to go to my nearest ATM and withdraw the balance. I was unable to withdraw the balance at the ATM, so I decided to go to my local o2 store to see if they could help me.
The guy in the store was again very helpful and he tried to call the 24hr helpline only for him to get the same message that I got. He then called his head office to see if they could help. The person he got speaking with said that they would check with their manager and get back to us. When they did come back to us the guy in the store was shocked and couldn't believe what they where telling him, that there 24/7 telephone line for lost or stolen cards was CLOSED at the weekends and that there was nothing that could be done until opening hours on Monday. He apologised on there behalf and said that there was nothing more her could do. I left the store shocked. I decided to try a different ATM to withdraw the balance. This time I managed to get most of what was left on the card but not it all, so I was a little relieved.
Today I called the 24hr helpline and finally managed to get through. I got transferred to a call centre working on o2's behalf. I asked to speak with a manager. I was transferred through to a lady I think was called Monica. I started to explain my situation to her. When I told her that I was trying to contact them since Saturday lunchtime she said that I must have the wrong number. I told her that I had the correct number, the same number listed on the o2 Money website, the same number given to me by the o2 mobile customer care department, and also the same number that I'm calling on now, and that I was unable to contact them because there office was closed and that this had been confirmed by a manager in o2 head office. Her reply to this was that this would have to be looked into and couldn't offer me any further information on that.
I then explained what had happened with my card. To me she didn't come across as being very helpful. To my horror again, she asked me if I would like the card to be cancelled or left as is. I thought that once I had brought it to there attention that they would cancel the card immediately. She asked me if I would like to try and withdraw the remaining balance from the card and also if I would like her to call me back later to see if I would like the card to be cancelled after I had made the withdrawal. Maybe I'm wrong here, but this doesn't make any sense to me at all. I also asked her if they had looked at my email that I had sent on Saturday, and her reply to this was that they would only start looking through emails on Monday. I reminded her that today is Monday and she seemed a little shocked by that.
Anyway the whole situation has to go under review and get passed over to Visa for them to investigate the matter, but that's a whole different issue. I just feel that people need to be aware of this mess, that in the event any o2 Money Card user's where to find themselves in my situation that at present o2 Money don't offer a 24hr 7 day a week helpline to there customers despite what they advertise on there website.
If anyone has had a similar experience with o2 Money I would really appreciate any feedback on this matter.

Thanks for reading.

J.

gctest50

Fantom J wrote: »

The last top-up I made was Friday evening just after 6pm, came home and checked the new balance on the card and everything was fine.

Saturday lunchtime I was about to make my online purchase, so I checked again the balance on my o2 card only to find that the balance this time was less €789.99 and also €21.72 for foreign currency exchange for a transaction made sometime Saturday morning

Sounds like your PC might have a virus/backdoor - it could "phone home" when it sees you looking up credit card stuff

http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/

wmpdd3

As far as I know o2 money is closing down / leaving Ireland. Maybe this is party of the issue.

I doubt o2 would be happy to find put that the company they out souse to wasn't available at the weekend.

Fantom J

gctest50 wrote: »

Sounds like your PC might have a virus/backdoor - it could "phone home" when it sees you looking up credit card stuff

http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/

I use an Apple mac computer not a PC. Would that make any difference?

mitosis

Fantom J wrote: »

I use an Apple mac computer not a PC. Would that make any difference?

A Mac IS a PC (personal computer). Unfortunately they get infected with trojans as do Windows OS PCs. It may be what has happened to you, but you should also think about where else the card was used/out of your hand.

dudara

Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

dudara

EDIT: From the O2 Money website

O2 Money card is issued by R. Raphaels Bank, and authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority

. If you're not getting much satisfaction, perhaps ask the UK Financial Services Authority for advice

gctest50

Fantom J wrote: »

I use an Apple mac computer not a PC. Would that make any difference?

once it has stuff on it that is "attractive" to thieves, someone will try

http://www.macworld.com/article/1166169/new_trojan_variant_can_install_without_password.html