‘Internet scammers tried to hook £600 from my account’
Online security is a big worry for all of us. Steve Clews tells Ruby Davies how fraudsters came close to taking hundreds of pounds of his money
CLEANER Steve Clews is issuing a warning to social media users – after scammers attempted to swipe £600 from his account.
Natwest stopped the £600 disappearing from the 38-yearold’s account but someone did buy a £10 gift card from his Amazon account.
Steve, of Meir, believes the incidents are linked to a new app that has taken the internet by storm and has tens of thousands of users. He has now removed the app.
Steve said: “I installed the app on my phone about five months ago. Then this month, I got a message saying ‘thanks for purchasing your Amazon gift card’.
“The person had purchased the gift card and sent it to themselves and put Happy Birthday from me.
“I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t recognise the person on the gift card. It was very strange.
“About two weeks earlier someone tried to take £600 out of my bank account, but Natwest realised what was going on and called me. They wouldn’t authorise the transaction with it being such a large amount of money. If they hadn’t called me the money would have been gone.
“I can’t really afford that kind of money to leave my bank. These days you can’t even afford £10 leaving your account because of everything going up in price.”
Steve says Amazon has sent him an email explaining it believes an ‘unauthorised party’ may have assessed his account. He has since been refunded the £10.
He added: “People should think twice before downloading things onto their phone. I just want to warn people.
“It hasn’t affected me that much because I know what I’m doing and I can sort myself out, but someone else might not know what to do.
“My gas and electricity price has trebled and I’ve noticed the price of food going up too. I can’t afford to even lose £10. I don’t know what would have happened if the £600 had been taken. The process I’ve had to go through just to get the £10 back is ridiculous.
“I feel really worried about getting scammed now, I’m more security conscious. I’ve changed all my passwords and don’t want to have anything saved on my phone.”