Amazon on-line scam - BE AWARE

That's completely mad!
How do they link you to your friends?
I honestly don't understand. Scary stuff

Yes, it's really frightened me too. I've reported it. I had a conversation online with this 'friend' and (whoever it really was) seemed to know our age brackets (they asked if the money could be sent to her niece for her 40th birthday). It's really freaked me out.

I had an email from the secretary of a club belong to . It stated Could I buy two EEcards from amazon £100 each as she was buying them for a young relative but at checkout there was a problem with her bank. She would repay me in a couple of days. It was of course a scam The poor persons email had been hacked. The email went to all on the secretary's contact list. We soon got contact telling us it was a scam and what had happened . I didn't do it thank goodness.....I put it on here at the time.

Blooming heck. I'm not surprised that you are shaken
Who did you report it to?

Sounds like your friend’s email has been hacked. She should change her passwords at once and she should be more careful.

Someone’s hacked into her email - she needs to change it ASAP.

It happened to a relative of ours - someone had got into his email, found out from reading emails that he was going to be on holiday and out of contact for a couple of weeks. Scammer then emailed his financial adviser, asking him to transfer a major sum to a completely new account. And not to bother trying to contact him, he was away, etc.

And the idiot FA actually did it!!

He did get the money back eventually, presumably from the FA’s insurance, though whether anyone would be prepared to insure him again after that debacle, I doubt.

We were later told that after any such request, any reputable FA would make several separate checks before transferring even a tenner.

lemsip was that today? I reported it to phishing.gov.com and Amazon spoofs. I've changed my password, so hope I'll be safe. At the moment I'm 'shaken and stirred'!

This is similar to something that was doing the rounds a few years ago. I received an email from a friend whom I knew was on holiday - she had been mugged and had no credit cards to pay for the emergency medical care required.

All a hoax of course but I was initially taken-in by the shock of her being mugged, but on closer inspection I could see the grammar wasn't quite right and when I hovered the curser over her email address it was something completely different.

Very unsettling as you feel as though you've personally been targeted.

I did once get an email from a work colleague who travelled a lot and was a bit disorganised, saying that they were stuck somewhere abroad and needed money. This person's first language wasn't English and there were a few errors in grammar that sounded like him, so it could have been from him.

The fact that he was sitting next to me at the time I received the email reassured me a bit though!

I can understand how people could be taken in.

Gosh, this is terrible. There are so many scams you need to be on your toes. There are several on youtube if anyone wants to check them out.

Anyone received unsolicited mail from a poster on this forum ?

I've had an odd email which warned me against this " user" but I don't even trust the sender ?

Honestly, you don't know where you are with these creeps !

If there is a " Michael " who works for Gransnet, then I apologise, but one has to be wary.

There is a Michael, yes

It is really frightening just how clever these scams are. As banks try and push us more and more into doing all transactions online, it gets ever more difficult. I have some money which is languishing in a rubbish interest account, but all the ones who over slightly more are online only, and although I do all my banking online, and I am happy to pay my bills that way, I am not prepared to transfer several thousand pounds this way. This has prompted me to change my passwords.

I've had some communication with Michael regarding trolls on Mumsnet.
There was a very bad one who was active at nighttime (like me) and it was posting awful stuff which the police got involved with I believe.

Incorrect grammar and slightly ‘off’ English are often a giveaway.
Those people who like to say that these things don’t matter any more, nobody cares, might like to ponder that.

I did read not long ago that incorrect SPAG may sometimes be on purpose, since people who fail to spot it may be more likely to be taken in. A way of weeding out the likely suckers from the non suckers, so to speak.

boheminan no, it was about six weeks ago. I put it on the scams thread then on the chat thread as only a couple of reads on the scams thread..

The scam about amazon vouchers has been on the radio a few times in consumer/money programmes.

I would say you both need to change your passwords ASAP. To stop these ppl getting your details