DEBT RECOVERY AND PROSECUTIONS UNIT

[minmiu]

Hello everyone! Can anyone please let me know if anyone has recently been asked to
participate in an interview in relation to
suspected fraudulent activity? I don't know what I did wrong and whether it was a scam email or not.

Because I received an email and it wasn't my name, only my email address, not my name or my home address.

 

[AlterEgo]

Could you post the contents of the email, redacting your email address/name? This is unlikely to be a scam, as the DRPU is a real thing.

 

[minmiu]

Alterego What is DRPU means?

 

[AlterEgo]

Debt Recovery and Prosecutions Unit.

 

[methecooldude]

Alterego What is DRPU means?

You wrote it as the thread title...

 

[minmiu]

yes, thank

 

[Gloster]

I note that it appears to require an answer by (unspecified date) February 2024. When did this e-mail arrive?

 

[AlterEgo]

Yes, thanks. i have the contens similar like that

but they only emailed me but I did not receive any letter back home asking for an interview. And the email doesn't match my name and doesn't have a home address, only an email address

It's likely they don't have your home address, which is why they have emailed you.

I note that it appears to require an answer by (unspecified date) February 2024. When did this e-mail arrive?

They have copied this from another thread and not posted their own email.

 

[Brissle Girl]

if you want some advice as what to do then you need to tell us a little bit more. Have you been refunding lots of tickets maybe, or lots of delay repay claims? Or have you bought tickets from very close to a major station, so that you are suspected of “short faring”?

 

[minmiu]

They didn't say what the reason. So, do you think I should participate in the interview or decline it and ask them for information?

 

[Wallsendmag]

Sounds like Trainline are looking at Northerns customer database for suspicious transactions

 

[AlterEgo]

This office acts as the prosecuting authority for Northern Trains Limited.
We have written to you recently inviting you to participate in an interview in relation to
suspected fraudulent activity. We have not received any response.
We will now continue with our investigation without your co-operation, and this may ultimately
result in a prosecution against you. You will be kept informed of the progress of the
investigation and any Court proceedings.
It is still possible for you to co-operate with the investigation by way of an interview under the
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and this can be arranged at a time and location
convenient to yourself. Please contact our Fraud Investigator, …. at
…….@ to make these arrangements. If we do not receive a
response by …., we will conclude our investigation and inform you of the outcome.

They didn't say what the reason. So, do you think I should participate in the interview or decline it and ask them for information?

The big question is - have you been making refunds you shouldn’t have, or reusing tickets, or claiming delay repay when you shouldn’t have?

 

[etr221]

I would ask what contact details they (DRPU) have provided for themselves (including the e-mail it was sent from)? And - before doing much more - seek to validate these to verify that this e-mail genuinely is from the DRPU (and not someone impersonating them) - I am sure someone on this forum will be able to do so, or otherwise contact Northern customer services, who should be able to.

And - if you are satisfied - then asking them, as they say they have written, but did not give name and address, what name and address they did write to (and maybe for a copy of the letter, as you did not receive it).

 

[furlong]

Firstly, assume it's genuine.

"I don't know what I did wrong"

Secondly, you do need to try to work out why they sent it. That ought to be possible to do.

Only then can you decide how to respond, if at all.

Can you think of anything in your rail travel that might be unusual?

Think about how the following will look to them:
- your address
- tickets you purchased, stations from and to (e.g. buying tickets for only one stop or multiple tickets with gaps in between, where it looks like you made a longer journey)
- any ticket refunds that were made
- any delay repay claims that were made
- when those tickets were scanned, at barriers or on trains (e.g. unlikely or impossible situations - delay repay claims at different times from when the ticket got scanned)
- any railcard discounts you used with those tickets (e.g. job centre discount that's frequently fraudulent)
- whether those discounts were valid at the times the tickets were scanned (e.g. minimum fares, where you buy a ticket at a price only valid after 10am but use it before 10am)
- whether tickets were regularly purchased after boarding trains (e.g. the law normally requires you to buy before boarding)
- scanning tickets that are valid for a single journey in ways that look like multiple journeys were attempted
- buying a mixture of singles and returns for the same journey

Does that list give you any ideas?