Martin Lewis issues warning after nearly being ‘caught out’ by Amazon scam | Personal Finance | Finance

Without thinking, he replied, and was told a new iPhone had been ordered on his account in a suspected fraud incident. Mr Lewis was then sent a six-digit code to reply to to cancel the order, but by this point, “alarm bells” had started to ring.

“I said I wanted to first check that this call was legit, especially when I started to realise it was a WhatsApp call,” he wrote in a blog post. “He got pushy and said if I didn’t send the code he wouldn’t stop the iPhone being sent. This felt wrong to me… Why would he want to risk sending a high value item if the customer says it wasn’t ordered?”

He then used a search engine to check the phone number, where it showed up as a recognised “Amazon scam number” from at least two sources.

Mr Lewis warned readers that if he had replied with the code, he would have opened the door for scammers to data mine, eventually gaining enough details to actually hack into his Amazon account and spend money.

While he added that he wouldn’t normally answer an unknown number, it had been a good exercise in learning how “plausible” fraudsters can be and how “clearly rehearsed” their answers are.

“Even though I’m obviously hyper-alert to scams … catch someone at the wrong time, when they’re not paying attention, and anyone can get caught out,” he said.

By sharing his experience, the consumer champion said he wanted to highlight “the terrible lack of protections out there for the vulnerable and not vulnerable” while also showing that responsibility does not lie with the victims.

“Let me say plainly, if it has happened or nearly happened to you, that it can happen to anyone,” he said. “No one is above this, and it’s the criminals who do it who are the ones to blame, not you.”