One of our members was approached by email and then text seemingly by another member she knew from a group. This exchange moved on fairly quickly to a “sob story” asking for help by way of purchasing something on their behalf from her Amazon account. Not getting any luck from the suspicious member who said they didn’t have Amazon they tried to suggest getting a relative involved, then finally asked for £250 to be deposited into a bank account. At this point our member deleted all the messages, and contacted the actual member directly by phone who confirmed they had their email account hacked while abroad recently.

NEVER respond to such requests purely on the back of an email, text or WhatsApp message. Email accounts and telephone numbers can be “spoofed” when the email or text originates from a different account but looks like a known contact. Find another way to speak to the person who is supposedly trying to contact you with such requests.