Received email from Greater Anglia Fraud Department – advice needed

[shanzyy]

I’ve received this email from Greater Anglia’s Fraud Department stating, There appear to be a number of incorrectly purchased tickets showing on your account that are a breach of our terms and conditions and considered fraudulent activity. This is the first email I’ve received. Has anyone been through this process? I’m looking for guidance on how to respond.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Don’t.

Unless you’ve been stopped in person, ignore it

 

[shanzyy]

I just replied
At present, I am not aware of which specific journeys or bookings are being referred to in your letter. I would be grateful if you could provide the dates, times, routes, and any other relevant details of the journeys under review so that I can carefully check my records and provide an accurate and complete response.

I have always intended to travel with the appropriate ticket and to comply with the applicable railway regulations. If there has been any misunderstanding or genuine mistake, it was entirely unintentional. Once I receive the relevant journey details, I will review them thoroughly and provide any explanation or supporting documentation that may assist your investigation.,

 

[AlterEgo]

Why have you committed to providing them with explanations? Don't respond to this sort of email regardless of the circumstances. Don't talk to them.

 

[shanzyy]

Why have you committed to providing them with explanations? Don't respond to this sort of email regardless of the circumstances. Don't talk to them.

I was scared of, shell I ignore onwards,

 

[tatitiliti]

I was scared of, shell I ignore onwards,

Yes. Ignore. Fortunately, from what you said, it doesn’t seem like you said anything incriminating in your reply.

Beware that they’re watching you closely now so ensure you always have a valid ticket for your journeys from now on.

 

[furlong]

I don't see how something as amateur as that got past their lawyers!
Simply put, no train company should be sending emails like that.
Ignore it.

(If GA intends to continue doing this, maybe it should seek advice from SWR as seen on another thread. SWR tells you up front what it thinks doesn't make sense.)

 

[talldave]

I was scared of, shell I ignore onwards,

Sadly, you ignored the excellent advice you received within a minute of posting your question. Which begs the question what was the point of asking?

 

[shanzyy]

Apologies , but I replied at that time when I recieved mail later I find the forum , please suggest me further ,

 

[tatitiliti]

Apologies , but I replied at that time when I recieved mail later I find the forum , please suggest me further ,

There is no further suggestion - don’t say another word to them and ignore all further correspondence!

 

[MrJeeves]

Apologies , but I replied at that time when I recieved mail later I find the forum , please suggest me further ,

As everyone else has said, do not reply to them.

If you receive any follow-up emails and are worried about them, ask about them on here instead of replying to Greater Anglia.

They will likely threaten a variety of outcomes, but we have never seen any of them come to fruition across many years, except when people start replying to their emails and admitting guilt for something they have no evidence of!

 

[SuspectUsual]

@shanzyy the only other thing I’d ask you is this - is there anything else you haven’t told us? We’ve advised on the basis that you’ve never been physically stopped by anyone working for the railway, and got an email totally out of the blue from GA implying you’ve been up to no good.

If that is right, as we’ve all consistently said, ignore them but come back here if you hear from them again, for reassurance that ignoring them is still the right thing to do if nothing else

If there is anything else that’s happened that you haven’t told us, now’s the time. You won’t get judged at all, but it might mean our advice changes

 

[shanzyy]

Yes , 3 months back they blocked my card as I didn’t tap in and inspector check my card at that time I tapped there on his machine ; than after 2 days they charge maximum fare and blocked my card.

 

[tatitiliti]

Yes , 3 months back they blocked my card as I didn’t tap in and inspector check my card at that time I tapped there on his machine ; than after 2 days they charge maximum fare and blocked my card.

So they haven’t stopped you to ask for your name and address or reported you by means of a travel irregularity report?

If what you’ve said is everything that’s happened, then continue to ignore any further email correspondence from them. Don’t say another word.

In the unlikely event that they send any correspondence to your postal address, post it on here and we can advise you further.

 

[shanzyy]

Just recieved this email,

 

[SuspectUsual]

Is there more to that email that you’ve not posted?

 

[shanzyy]

Is there more to that email that you’ve not posted?

Thank you for contacting us regarding your case.
Your account was highlighted due to some tickets either being purchased on board the trains or on arrival at stations. These tickets have been scanned on the barriers just after purchase to exit the barriers. These tickets are not valid. Tickets must be purchased prior to boarding the train to be valid. This flagged your account as possible fraudulent travel.
Upon further investigation, we have come across irregularities with your ticketing purchase history. This is where the tickets may not be reflecting your full journey.
Some examples:

Colchester	Colchester Town	26/06/2026​
Hatfield (Herts)	Welwyn Garden City	26/06/2026​
Welwyn North	Hatfield (Herts)	26/06/2026​
Colchester Town	Colchester	25/06/2026​
London Liverpool Street	Stratford (London)	24/06/2026​
Colchester Town	Colchester	24/06/2026​

Colchester or Colchester Town	Clacton-on-Sea	20/06/2026​
Welham Green	Hatfield (Herts)	20/06/2026​
Colchester Town	Colchester	19/06/2026​
Clacton-on-Sea	Colchester or Colchester Town	19/06/2026​
Brookmans Park	Hatfield (Herts)	19/06/2026​

Hatfield (Herts)	Welham Green	12/06/2026​
Colchester or Colchester Town	Clacton-on-Sea	12/06/2026​
Hatfield (Herts)	Welham Green	11/06/2026​
Colchester or Colchester Town	Clacton-on-Sea	11/06/2026​

Hatfield (Herts)	Welham Green	08/06/2026​
Hythe (Essex)	Colchester or Colchester Town	08/06/2026​
Colchester Town	Colchester	08/06/2026​

The ticket historic data reflects that your journeys are normally Hatfield to Clacton-on Sea/Colchester. From our analyst process, we have been able to identify "Sandwich" tickets, where the full ticket is not being purchased from the start and to the end of your journey. Therefore, could you please explain the above ticket purchases?
In addition to this, we do not seem to hold any records of your railcard for the below periods:

	Period
16-25 Railcard	08/05/2026 - 26/06/2026

Could you please send over evidence of your railcard. This could either be from your railcard account or purchase email confirmation clearly showing validity periods.
At this stage we would like to offer you an opportunity to explain these irregularities on your account, and based on your response the decision will be to either offer you the opportunity to repay any funds relating to these journeys (plus our administration fee), (b) to forward your case to our prosecutions department for processing or (c) close your case (if sufficient evidence has been provided and proved).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Jul 2026 ==

As everyone else has said, do not reply to them.

If you receive any follow-up emails and are worried about them, ask about them on here instead of replying to Greater Anglia.

They will likely threaten a variety of outcomes, but we have never seen any of them come to fruition across many years, except when people start replying to their emails and admitting guilt for something they have no evidence of!

I recieved this email

 

[Mattplans]

The advice stands. They need to stop you in-person to take action against this. Do not reply. Clearly they have identified your travel patterns, so it would be wise for you to stop fare evading as if they were to catch you doing this in-person it would be a different story. They might try to send you more emails but they can be safely ignored, they can't prosecute you for this after-the-fact.

(If GA intends to continue doing this, maybe it should seek advice from SWR as seen on another thread. SWR tells you up front what it thinks doesn't make sense.)

I suppose GA's method allows them to confirm that it's a valid email address before they go through the effort of further investigating. That's why it's always wise not to reply

 

[John R]

Your first reply committed to sending a response when you have more information. Now you’ve got that information, how do you explain not replying?

Oh, and stop fare dodging in future…

 

[saismee]

(If GA intends to continue doing this, maybe it should seek advice from SWR as seen on another thread. SWR tells you up front what it thinks doesn't make sense.)

This isn't true, I received one which told me upfront exactly what they thought was happening (a rare case of actual innocence).

Good Morning,

I am emailing from the Greater Anglia fraud department, regarding your Greater Anglia account, in particular the number of times you have used the tickets you have purchased which is a breach of our terms and conditions and considered fraudulent activity.

Attached is a letter for you to read.

Please respond within 7 days to settle this case.

Kind regards

Revenue Protection Fraud and Investigations Team

Dear XXX,
Re: Greater Anglia Account
We have been notified that the ticket you purchased numbered XXX on the DATE appears to have been used for multiple journeys when travelling on Greater Anglia services. This activity would be considered a breach of our terms and conditions.

We invite you to respond to this letter within 7 days by email to Fraud.Investigations@greateranglia.co.uk quoting the reference number XXX in the subject field. In your response, you may provide any statements or mitigations, as well as any supporting documentation, that you would like us to consider in relation to this matter.

It depends on what they think you've done. I would guess that re-using period returns would give an email such as this, unlike OPs.

 

[Tetchytyke]

As they didn't catch you in the act, it becomes a lot more difficult for them to prove the offence. The best way of proving it is by either getting you to admit to it (either knowingly or unwittingly) or trapping you in a lie. This is why the advice is not to respond to these emails. Yu have the right to remain silent. Sometimes it is best to use it.

There are only really two options for you at this stage:
1. Ignore them and see what happens; or
2. Pay the settlement.

Which one you choose is up to you. If you have been doughnutting (and they have pretty irrefutable evidence that someone using your account has been doing so, thanks to the scan records from the tickets) then a settlement figure is not likely to be cheap.

 

[reb0118]

Could GA pursue this through the civil court route where the onus of proof is based on the much lower "balance of probabilities"? Who else but the OP was using his account?

 

[shanzyy]

Thanks for your input. Are you aware of any examples where Greater Anglia has pursued a civil claim in similar circumstances, or is it mainly a theoretical possibility?

Could GA pursue this through the civil court route where the onus of proof is based on the much lower "balance of probabilities"? Who else but the OP was using his account?

 

[reb0118]

Thanks for your input. Are you aware of any examples where Greater Anglia has pursued a civil claim in similar circumstances, or is it mainly a theoretical possibility?

I'm not, personally, aware of any examples involving GA, but I am aware of plenty involving other train operating companies - especially GWR. Normally, these occur after the six month period for actively pursuing a criminal case has elapsed.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Could GA pursue this through the civil court route where the onus of proof is based on the much lower "balance of probabilities"? Who else but the OP was using his account?

They very possibly could and if the OP receives any Court paperwork or a Letter Before Action they would do well to seek advice immediately.

But any civil debt is unlikely to much exceed what they would ask for now so there's no harm in waiting it out.

 

[Mattplans]

It's not outside of the realm of possibilities, but it's not something we've ever seen GA do (in the quite a few of these data trawl cases we've now seen on the forum) and there's nothing to suggest they would do it here.

So, to be clear to @shanzyy, who I noticed opened a new thread on this same case, ignore the email for now (post any follow-up emails you recieve on the forum), and stop fare-evading. As mentioned upthread they can't escalate this to a prosecution just as a result of a data trawl, and the chances of being civily pursued for this are very slim. Hope this helps!

 

[furlong]

If you don't respond, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they took a case like this one through to prosecution now.

There is a big difference between this case and the ones we normally see. 26th June. That's recent! The CCTV won't have been wiped yet, so the only extra thing they need to do in terms of evidence is to obtain the images of the person using each of these tickets at each barrier.

 

[Tetchytyke]

If you don't respond, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they took a case like this one through to prosecution now.

If they've not stopped the OP I don't see how they could prove it.

The OP should be alive to the risk that they might try and prosecute it and come back for further assistance if required.

But they're really only likely to get the evidence they need if the OP admits it. Which is why you exercise your right to remain silent.

The CCTV won't have been wiped yet, so the only extra thing they need to do in terms of evidence is to obtain the images of the person using each of these tickets at each barrier.

Have you seen the quality of most CCTV?

 

[shanzyy]

Thanks everyone for your views. I appreciate the different perspectives and understand there are differing opinions about the likelihood of prosecution and what evidence may or may not be available.


One thing I’m still unsure about is how Greater Anglia would know my home address. I noticed they appear to have data from my TrainPal bookings, but I don’t remember adding my address to my TrainPal account. Does TrainPal normally provide address details as well, or only booking information?

I’ll wait to see what happens next, and if I receive any formal correspondence or court papers, I’ll come back for further advice.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

One thing I’m still unsure about is how Greater Anglia would know my home address.

They would most likely contact the issuer of the credit or debit card used to buy tickets.