Scam watch: ‘Scammers spent £650 on Amazon’

Dear Which?,

I started receiving a series of emails from Amazon in April 2025. Since I rarely use Amazon, I paid them little notice at first and assumed they were marketing emails.

When the emails started appearing daily, I thought I ought to have a look to see what was going on. I discovered that items had been ordered on my Amazon account and, in some cases, were out for delivery. The fraudulent purchases weren’t cheap – they included a £90 DeWalt tool and a £130 wardrobe. In total, £650 had been spent on various items using my linked Nationwide debit card.

Nationwide was very helpful and quickly refunded the money, also replacing my card and Pin. I also had a positive response from Amazon customer service, which requested screengrabs of the emails I’d been receiving. I’ve secured my Amazon account by changing my password.

I have no idea how my Amazon account was compromised, but I hadn’t been careless with it in any way. I hope my experience serves as a warning to members not to ignore emails of this nature. 

Chris Turner

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Faye Lipson, Which? senior researcher, says: 

Our instinct is often to ignore unexpected emails and messages, because we think they’re irrelevant or even scams.

But it’s worth reading emails that appear to come from accounts linked with our payment cards, bank accounts or extensive personal data. Being ruthless with your marketing permissions and unsubscribing from unwanted newsletters can make important messages easier to spot. 

Checking is important, but don’t click on any links or download anything from an email unless you’re totally sure it’s trustworthy. Verify that the content is genuine (and not an impersonation scam) by going directly to the relevant website on your browser and logging in or by calling a trusted number stated on previous genuine correspondence.

We’ll probably never know how the fraudsters got access to your Amazon account, but ensure you’re using a unique unrelated password for each of your online accounts. You should enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on Amazon and any other accounts which offer it, ideally using an authenticator app rather than text messages. Read our guide on two-factor authentication for more information.