Online Shopping – Account Takeovers #FraudFree2026

Good afternoon,

We have received several reports from residents of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who have lost money due to fraudulent orders placed via their online shopping accounts.  Criminals take over a victim’s account and place large orders using the victim’s stored card details.  Luckily, many retailers send alerts when orders are placed so some residents have been able to act quickly to prevent losses – but not all.

This is not a new issue, regular readers will remember similar, previous alerts.  Some Ocado customers seem to be affected – but it could happen at any time to anyone who shops online with any retailer.

Ocado have kindly issued a statement that includes reassurance to their customers that “there has been no data breach nor cyber-attack on their internal systems, databases or infrastructure…Our analysis shows that these incidents result from “credential stuffing” or similar where criminal reuse login details obtained from breaches from other third-party websites.”

Our advice to you is, as always, to use strong passwords, do not use the same passwords for different accounts, change passwords regularly, and do not store payment details on online shopping accounts. 

For further advice about shopping safely online, please see: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/shopping-online-securely

Please do share this important update with friends and family and encourage them to sign up for their own Hampshire Alert: https://www.hampshirealert.co.uk/ 

Hampshire Alerts is not a crime reporting portal – please do not report crime here.

If you realise you’ve been defrauded and wish to report a fraud that has already happened, please report it to Report Fraud either by phone 0300 123 2040 or online at: https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/ 

However, if a fraud or other crime is in progress, and/or you are in fear for yourself or someone else, and/or there is evidence in situ that could be damaged/destroyed, please phone 999 immediately. 

Otherwise, report non-fraud crime online, or find out about other ways to report a crime at: https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

If you would like to report a crime anonymously, please contact: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/ or phone 0800 555 111

If you've been affected by a crime please contact Victim Care Hub for free, confidential, support:  https://www.hampshireiowvictimcare.co.uk/  or phone 0808 178 1641

If you’ve received a phishing email please report it to your email provider and/or forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk 

If you’ve received unwanted phone calls or texts from people you think are trying to scam you, but you haven’t engaged with them, please forward the text/phone number to 7726 or your phone provider.

Thank you – Fraud Safeguarding Team