Keeping you updated on the latest financial scams
We’ve recently heard about the latest scam, and while they’re using the name, it has nothing to do with Amazon!
We hear of a lot of financial scams, usually in the international market. This one is targeting UK residents and nearly duped one of our readers, recently.
What’s the Amazon scam?
Firstly, our reader received a telephone call. With urgency, the caller informed her of an issue with her Amazon account. As an Amazon customer (who isn’t?), our reader was understandably concerned. With a few simple headlines, our reader believed herself to be at risk; someone was about to order a high-value item on her Amazon account and they needed to be stopped!
Unfortunately for the scammers, their next steps were for our reader to open their laptop, download some software and allow it to block the Amazon-account attacker. This is where alarm bells rang, but would you have known to stop at this point? Scammers are smart, and quick. They operate to a pre-defined script and are ready for any ‘objection’ from you.
“But let me check with the bank”
“But let me check the bank” is often met with, “of course, but we don’t have time now” or similar. If anyone asks for your banking information, calls out of the blue or asks you to download software, you must beware. Financial scammers often have a British accent and can be comfortingly intelligent over the phone. This is not just an automated scam market anymore – people will talk to you and reassure you, before taking your lifetime savings.