Amazon phone scam warning issued after grandmother loses £7,500 funeral savings to fake caller

Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace selling thousands of products to millions of customers across the UK every day.

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns resulted in a surge in sales as demand for online goods increased across the UK.

However, with increased demand comes a greater risk of being duped by fraudsters purporting to be from Amazon. In 2021, we’ve already seen scam reports involving DPD, Royal Mail, National Insurance numbers and TV Licensing.

And now Birmingham Live reports that a grandmother has been stripped of her funeral savings by a fraudster pretending to be from the online retailer.

After multiple phone calls from ‘Amazon’ on her mobile phone, Barbara Watts decided to ‘press 1 to opt out’.

She got straight through to a ‘friendly man’ who said she was owed a £79.99 refund from the online shopping giant and offered to refund the money into her account.

Instead, he stole £7,500 from her account – money that she had been saving to pay for her funeral.

“He said he was from Amazon and that he wanted to refund me £79.99,” the 79-year-old said.

“He was very friendly and chatty, telling me that his wife had just had a baby and that he’d been to Australia. He really hooked me in.”

She added: “I gave him my bank details because I thought it was a genuine refund.

“But, when he was finishing the call, he said ‘if anyone asks you where the money has gone, tell them you have given it to your daughter’ then he put the phone down.

“As soon as I put the phone down, I realised something wasn’t right.”

Checking her bank account, Mrs Watts was horrified to discover that £7,500 – all of her savings – had gone.

She contacted her bank, Nationwide Building Society, but was told it was too late. The money had been transferred to an HSBC bank account and she says they told her they could not get it back.

“It’s made me so ill,” said Mrs Watts, who has four children, 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

“That was my funeral money, I couldn’t believe it. I’m 80 next month.

“At one point during the call, I had a cough and he said ‘go and have a drink and I’ll wait here’. That’s when I think he got into my account. I think that’s when he saw I had £7,500 in there.”

Alarmingly, the caller phoned again and asked why Mrs Watts had reported him.

“I had reported it to the fraud squad and he called and said why have you reported me to the fraud squad? I looked and the £7,500 was back in my account. But, when I looked again the next day, it had been emptied again. There was only £10 left.

“When I spoke to Nationwide, they said I should have read the disclaimer at the bottom of the account details when setting it up.”

Mrs Watts wanted to raise awareness of the scam to try to prevent others from falling victim to it.

“The fraud squad said there is no money in the HSBC account now but that they’d keep trying. I’ve heard nothing since. My daughter says she’s going to take it to the Ombudsman.

“Nationwide has sent me a new card but I’m frightened to use my card now. My family are shocked, they can’t believe it happened.”

Birmingham Live got in touch with Nationwide about Mrs Watts’ scam.

A spokesman said: “Our member was unfortunately the victim of a scam where she was convinced into sending the payment to a fraudster.

“This was not an authorised transaction, the member authorised the money to be sent to the receiving account. She was initially held liable for the loss as her actions meant we were unable to show her the appropriate warning against this type of scam.

“However, following a review of her situation we can see that there were circumstances that could have made her more vulnerable to being scammed. Therefore we have decided to make a full refund from the No Blame fund and will be contacting her to update her on our decision.”

An Amazon spokesperson said: “We take phishing, spoofing and smishing attempts on our customers seriously.

“Amazon does not send unsolicited messages asking for sensitive personal information like credit card information or your password.

“Additionally, Amazon will never ask for payment outside of our website and will never ask for remote access to a device.

“We maintain a webpage to assist customers here. If a customer receives an email they believe may not be from Amazon, they should report it to our Customer Services.”

Action Fraud advice on how to protect yourself from fraud

1. Do not give any personal information to organisations or people before verifying their credentials. Always question unsolicited calls, texts or emails requesting your personal or financial information.

2. Make sure your computer has up-to-date anti-virus software and a firewall installed.

3. Banks and financial institutions will not send you an email asking you to click on a link and confirm your bank details. Do not trust emails or texts that ask you to click a link and supply financial information, even if they look genuine.

4. Sign-up to Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code whenever you are given the option while shopping online.

If you think you have been the victim of a fraud, contact your bank immediately and report it to Police Scotland via 101.

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