Scammers pretending to be Ofgem in latest fraud attack on households

Energy customers are being targeted by fraudsters claiming to be from regulator Ofgem in the latest fraud wave hitting households.

Suppliers have written to consumers warning fraudsters have been calling and emailing customers asking them to apply for the Government’s £400 energy bill rebate. In reality they are fraudsters trying to steal bank details either over the phone or via a fake online portal.

The cost of living payment, announced by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak in May, promised a minimum non-repayable grant of £400 to ease the impact of soaring energy bills.

The discount is automatically applied to bills by suppliers, however, meaning there is no need for consumers to apply manually. Payments will begin in October.

Octopus Energy, which warned customers this week to ignore scam emails, said the industry was trying to tackle the growing fraud trend.

Ofgem has called on energy suppliers to ensure up-to-date information about scams is freely available on their websites and said it had been working with the National Cyber Security Centre to prevent further attacks.

The regulator urged customers not to respond to callers who demand bank details over the phone, and instead to contact suppliers directly using details on their website, rather than numbers or addresses in the message.

The Ofgem scam is the latest iteration in a long line of phishing scams, said Richard Emery of 4Keys International, a fraud expert.

He said: “If someone asks for bank details, you must question who they are and why they need them. It’s actually really odd given that prices are going up. Why do people believe they might be getting a refund?”

A spokesman for Ofgem said: “Protecting consumers is our top priority and it is alarming that vulnerable customers are being preyed upon in this way when people are already struggling so much.”

Octopus Energy warned customers: "Fraudsters are pretending to be Ofgem. If you receive a call or email telling you to apply for your energy bill rebate, ignore it.

“We'll apply your rebate automatically as soon as you're entitled to it."

It comes as analysts Cornwall Insight predict the energy price cap, which limits how much providers can charge customers for energy usage, could rise to over £3,500 a year from October. In January, the cap is forecast to rise even further – to £4,266.

Households could face energy bills as high as £500 a month this winter. Experts have warned this will be financially crippling for many, given six million households owe an average of £206 to providers, according to price comparison site Uswitch.

Uswitch said the number of homes in credit had dropped from 11 million to nine million since April, and now eight million households have no credit balances at all, leaving them most exposed to higher bills.