Gift card scam: ‘My One4all balance has been drained’
I was given a digital One4all gift card just before Christmas, but when I went to use it, it wasn’t being accepted in the shops.
I thought that it was because of the Christmas rush, so I checked my balance and discovered that the system had recorded a transaction earlier that day.
When I called the helpline, I was told I had made a payment to John Lewis – which I hadn’t.
Something wasn’t sitting right so I did some Google searches and discovered the same issues reported on Trustpilot, and then found a review on Review.io from over six months ago with exactly the same scenario as mine.
It has made me worried about what data is held about me and whether it’s safe. I have reported the issue to One4all, and received an email with a link to a form.
Elly Koopman, Crewe
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Faye Lipson, Which? senior researcher, says:
We’ve recently received another very similar report to yours, from someone whose grandson received a £50 One4all card at Christmas and checked a month later to find that it had £0 left. A transaction for the full amount had apparently been made a few days previously, while he was at school.
What links these two cases is that large purchases have been made in one go by someone other than the cardholder.
We asked One4all about your experience and it then got back in touch with you for more information. It was still investigating your case and therefore we don’t know how your specific card has been compromised, but it issued a general warning to us about copycat sites. It explained that fraud is a small part of what happens in the gift card market.
One4all encourages anyone who has experienced an unusual activity to contact its customer service team so they can help. It added that for One4all customers who have experienced fraudulent activities on their gift card, it will reimburse their gift card.
It emphasised that One4all gift card holders should always check a gift card balance via One4all.com and be wary of using copycat websites.
It also warned against clicking links from texts claiming to be from One4all. Instead, call 03700 84 4444 or fill in the webform at one4all.com/contact-us
