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AIBU?

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Original poster

To stop using Ocado

65 replies

Foodshoppingonline · 06/05/2016 23:54

NC. I've used Ocado for over a year because they seem to more reliable than Waitrose in that they turn up on time and essentials are not endlessly not being delivered because they're out of stock.
But a friend of a friend has told me a worrying story. Basically unknown to them their Ocado account was hacked, the phone number changed and over a £1500 of alcohol was ordered. A delivery time was made for very late at night, when this friend of a friend was asleep, and it appears when Ocado turned up someone came out their side entrance pretended to be them and took the order and then drove off with it. The same thing was done again this time for a very early in the morning delivery this time, again when they'd be asleep and ordered £3000 worth of alcohol but luckily their bank got suspicious (not Ocado) and blocked the transaction and contacted them. When this friend of a friend contacted Ocado and said his account had been hacked etc apparently they couldn't care less, and because you don't sign for the delivery (unlike Waitrose) it couldn't be proven that they didn't order it and we're just trying to pull a fast one! I just find this really worrying and it's put me off using them. I can see that Ocado would have to take their word for it, but surely they should at the very least do some in depth investigation. Or am I just being unreasonable and unnecessarily paranoid maybe it a very rare occurrence?

OP posts:
novemberchild · 07/05/2016 01:13

Who 'comes out of a side gate' at 11pm, with all the lights off?

Also, £1500 on alcohol...I don't know about anyone else, but my bank text me and require confirmation for anything 'out of character' on my card. I can't imagine many people make a habit of buying that much booze.

LittleBearPad · 07/05/2016 09:11

Tell your 'friend of a friend' to put a lock on their side gate. Problem solved.

Very odd thread.

LittleBearPad · 07/05/2016 09:16

Also didn't they notice they got emails confirming the delivery of this spurious alcohol.

Pipbin · 07/05/2016 09:25

I'm guessing Little that they changed email address too.

LadyintheRadiator · 07/05/2016 09:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MiddleClassProblem · 07/05/2016 09:27

Why change the email and not the delivery?...

JessieMcJessie · 07/05/2016 10:05

Do you have a side gate? if not, no probs. If yes, padlock it. "problem" solved.

llhj · 07/05/2016 10:16

But why are you so worried? There's loads of fraud every day for all sorts of transactions. The terrible email diversion story when buying a house .
What are you going to do never buy a house again. Such is life.

www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/we-lost-300000-intercepted-solicitor-emails-behind-surge-in-mort/

foursillybeans · 07/05/2016 10:18

What doesn't make sense about this is that the Ocado driver thought this was ok and didn't ask for id or anything. I also shop at Ocado and don't really like the fact that you don't have to sign anything for delivery or even prove your id.

Pipbin · 07/05/2016 10:20

For this to work the criminals needed to:

  • find a house that got an ocado delivery
  • on a street where they could wait without being seen.
  • a house with a side gate
  • where the occupants go to bed before 11

Then they have to find out either the occupants email address or ocado log in.
Then they have to guess the password.

Seems a lot of hassle to me.

CountessOfStrathearn · 07/05/2016 10:48

"don't really like the fact that you don't have to sign anything for delivery or even prove your id."

They knock at the delivery address and an adult at that address answers the door to accept the shopping. Not sure why I would need to prove my ID!

The OP's story for all the reasons others have said sounds incredibly implausible!

"Have you contacted Ocado and asked them what checks they have in place to stop this from happening?"

I get an email from Ocado whenever I checkout an order, then another one if I did that before the last order time to remind me in case I want to adjust it (along with a similar text), and then another text and email on the day of delivery to remind me it is coming and if there are any substitutions.

bloodyteenagers · 07/05/2016 10:59

Hang on, so this person didn't realise until the second time when the bank contacted them.

I am sure I am not the only one who wouldn't missed over a grand going missing from my bank account.

Delivery driver didn't flag anything when none of the shopping was going into the house? You know as it normally does.

Driver knocks on your door. You open it. You either let driver in or you start taking shopping in, or combo of both.

Added to that, the occupants slept through all of this?

More holes than a sieve.

If someone told me this, I would be asking the above questions and more. Because I would suspect either it's bollocks or the account holder themselves was scamming the company and finally got rumbled by the bank.

MiddleClassProblem · 07/05/2016 12:59

And the order had to have been done at least the day before.

And yes, it's op's ignorance to financial fraud, which happens all the time in all chains of retail. Why stop using Ocado? Really the only way forward must be a freezer full of cash...

TheFuckersBitingMe · 07/05/2016 13:06

I get an email when Ocado orders go through, and they text with an estimated delivery time on the day of delivery (and often the driver will phone to ask if they can pop by half an hour early) so fail to see how the account owner wouldn't know an order had been put through. The email has an attached breakdown of what you've ordered, too, and the text always mentions substitutions; with £1,500 worth of products I'd guess there'd be a couple so you'd know if it was yours or not.

Pipbin · 07/05/2016 13:08

Well I contacted ocado and they said that they don't store your bank or card details. It's your computer that automatically fills it in.
So the criminals would have needed to steal the card details too. The only way this could happen would be if the FOAF was entirely fictional extremely lax with security and personal details.

Buxtonstill · 07/05/2016 13:20

Ha Ha Ha! Never read so much drivel in all my life! So they changed the original Phone number, email address. Yeah right. To deliver at that time, you would have selected the 10-11 delivery slot. So they were that sure the occupants would be asleep at 10pm. Purlease. Is this the work of some deluded author or scriptwriter testing the water to see how credible a storyline this would be?

CountessOfStrathearn · 07/05/2016 13:27

"they said that they don't store your bank or card details. It's your computer that automatically fills it in."

To be fair, that's not the case for those of us with reserved slots.

The story is still nonsense!

firesidechat · 07/05/2016 13:35

As soon as I read your first post op, I thought urban myth. I had a friend tell me a story about a friend of theirs and I later saw the same story on an urban myth website. Sometimes people will tell you a bollocks story for the attention or it's a friend of a friend of a friend and gains some weird validity.

I very much doubt that a delivery driver would accept the word of a lurking stranger that they were the owner of the house.

firesidechat · 07/05/2016 13:37

Someone at work told me this story, she's very genuine and credible and knows these people well, she also use Ocado and knows I do that's why she told me. The delivery was for 11pm apparently they were asleep.

The person I mentioned in my last post was a churchgoing Christian. No one is immune from the urban myth.

Hawkinzy · 07/05/2016 14:05

This is ridiculously common, not only with Ocado, but most supermarkets and shops. Customers phished/hacked details (card, email address & password, location so they can use a local IP address etc), obviously unbeknown to them, are readily available to purchase online for a few quid. You buy the details, make a big order, and either change the address/number or less commonly, make a late night (even day time) delivery to the customers actual address.

Disclaimer: no, I have never done this. (No really, I haven't).

twilightcafe · 07/05/2016 14:20

I get an email from Ocado whenever I place or amend an order; plus reminders via text message. So I would know whether there were any suspicious orders on my account.

ceeveebee · 07/05/2016 14:27

Twilight - you're assuming of course that the scammers wouldn't change the email address and phone number on the account?

firesidechat · 07/05/2016 14:27

How do you know that this is common Hawkinszy? Online fraud in general is quite common, but this particular one seems doomed to failure.

twilightcafe · 07/05/2016 14:31

True, ceevee.

I'm going to check my account, just to be on the safe side.

Tanith · 07/05/2016 14:39

This did indeed happen many years ago in the first few months when Ocado were starting up, innocent and naive to the wiles of thieves and scammers.

To my knowledge, the customer was fully reimbursed with an apology and stringent precautions were put in place to prevent it happening again. The drivers were warned they faced instant dismissal if they did not follow the new procedures and, to this day, they cannot just hand over shopping to any Tom, Dick or Harry loitering at the premises.

I'm afraid I cannot believe this FOAF - it just couldn't happen that way now.
Of course, the FOAF might have been trying to scam Ocado and got caught out?