Warning after ‘Amazon’ scammers target nest egg

A Mid Argyll woman has spoken out after she narrowly avoided having her retirement pot stolen by heartless fraudsters.

The woman, who does not wish to be named, said: ‘I want to tell people what hapMartin, pened to me in case they are targeting this area.’

On Monday January 27 at 8.30am, she received a message purporting to be from Amazon Prime to inform her they had taken a £33.99 charge from her bank account.

She told them she had not asked for this and was given advice on completing an online form to claim reimbursement.

She was then told she had entered a decimal point incorrectly and that ‘Amazon’ had paid back £3,999.

The operative told her that if she didn’t immediately repay the money he would ‘lose his job’.

After a few comings and goings on the phone and talking to a ‘supervisor’ or two, the fraudsters persuaded the lady to install an app on her phone to allow payment.

Luckily the woman was wise enough to give details of a bank account with very little money in it.

She explained: ‘They demanded I contact the bank and arrange for a bank transfer. I was on the phone for about three hours, but when I tried to put the phone down I couldn’t end the call. They’d kept the line open.

‘But I didn’t give them details of the account where I’d put my retirement lump sum.’

She added: ‘I then got a text from my bank asking whether I had made the transaction and, thankfully, they stopped the payment.’

She phoned the police to report it then, when she tried to use her bank account on Tuesday, she was unable to get access.

‘The bank explained that by downloading the app the fraudsters would have had access to all my accounts, not just the ‘small’ one,’ the lady explained. ‘So I very nearly lost my retirement money.’

Her bank disabled her internet banking facility and she is now having to open new accounts.

‘These scammers spoke with Asian accents and were so plausible,’ she added.

The advice on the Amazon website is: ‘If you receive a suspicious phone call, email or text message claiming to be from Amazon asking for payment, personal information or offering a refund you do not expect, please do not share any personal information and disconnect any phone call immediately.

‘You can report spam calls via Action Fraud at www. actionfraud.police.uk.

‘Please also note that Amazon will never ask for your personal information, or ask you to make a payment outside of our website, for example via bank transfer or emailing credit card details.’

Alternatively, call Police Scotland on 101 to report the scam.

‘They demanded I contact the bank and arrange for a bank transfer. I was on the phone for about three hours, but when I tried to put the phone down I couldn’t end the call. They’d kept the line open.’