Fraudulent Octopus Energy Charge

lozenlady

I recently discovered an unauthorized charge of £1,060 on my American Express (AMEX) credit card from Octopus Energy. I'm a customer of Octopus for both gas and electric, but I pay through direct debit and don't have my AMEX linked to my account.

After contacting Octopus to report the charge, they stated there was no such amount on my account and advised me to report it as fraud to AMEX. I’ve done so, and AMEX has cancelled my card and is processing the issue.

However, my concern is that Octopus didn’t seem concerned about the potential fraudulent transaction or the possibility that someone is paying their bills fraudulently.

Is there anything else I should do, or is there another organization I should report this to? Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

FlorayG

Its most likely absolutely nothing to do with Octopus. Some fraudster has set up and account for themselves which appears to you to be Octopus but isn't. If it HAS been paid to Octopus then your bank can reverse the payment and Octopus will soon be contacting whoever it is

flaneurs_lobster

Octopus should, of course, check that the Amex details* have not actually been used in their payment system to credit another account - although it would be a pretty stupid bit of fraud to use stolen funds to credit a utility account, but might just be a genuine error.

*Often hindered by the rules that disallow the storage of payment card details post-transaction unless the payee explicitly agrees.

MattMattMattUK

flaneurs_lobster said:

Octopus should, of course, check that the Amex details* have not actually been used in their payment system to credit another account - although it would be a pretty stupid bit of fraud to use stolen funds to credit a utility account, but might just be a genuine error.

*Often hindered by the rules that disallow the storage of payment card details post-transaction unless the payee explicitly agrees.

On average around 300 people a year pay their HMRC tax bill with a stolen debit card, when HMRC used to allow the use of credit cards the figure was quite a bit higher. There are a lot of really stupid people!