Which? warns of fraudsters targeting internet outage confusion
Which? has warned consumers to watch out for scammers trying to take advantage of the confusion caused by a major global internet outage.
The problem at Amazon’s cloud computing service left millions of people unable to access website and apps, including Snapchat, Roblox, Signal and Duolingo, as well as Amazon-owned operations such as its retail site and the Ring doorbell company.
In the UK, Lloyds Bank was affected as well as its subsidiaries Halifax and Bank of Scotland, while there were also reports of problems accessing the HM Revenue and Customs website.
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Global internet outage
Earlier today, Amazon Web Services suffered a major internet outage, leading to thousands of reports across the globe of other popular sites and services temporarily going down.
Amazon said the issue appeared to be technical, although the full cause has not yet been confirmed.
The outage has had a knock-on effect on many other websites and platforms, with some reports of users being unable to log into their Ring accounts and access their footage, talk to their Alexa home hubs to manage their smart homes, or of logging into Snapchat to find their friend list gone.
Although services appear to be recovering, consumers are still being urged to stay cautious.
Which? is warning people to be on alert for phishing messages that appear to come from Amazon, banks or other trusted organisations.
Which?’s scams and consumer rights editor Lauren Deitz said:
'Scammers will look to take advantage of these opportunities and so people should be cautious of acting on any request to share personal or financial details, or account information.
If you receive a message you are worried about, contact the relevant organisation by another means but be aware their phone lines will be very busy at the moment, so only do this if it's urgent.'
Consumers are also being advised to keep records of any problems they experience, particularly where payments have failed or banking services have been disrupted.
Jenny Ross, editor of Which? Money, said:
'An outage of this scale is incredibly rare, but with so many companies reliant on Amazon Web Services, millions of UK consumers are likely to be impacted today.
'Perhaps most worrying are reports that some of the UK's biggest banks are out of action, with customers unable to make payments or access their banking apps.
'Affected banks must ensure customers are kept updated and swiftly compensated for any loss resulting from today's issues. Customers should keep evidence of impacted payments in case they need to make a claim, and in the meantime anyone likely to miss important payments should contact the company involved to ensure they waive any fees.'
How to spot a scam
Some scams can be very convincing, so it's important to stay vigilant and know how to spot them. You can head to our advice on recognising text, phone and email scams below, or see all our advice on how to spot a scam:
Keeping your data safe
There's never a bad time to make sure your online data is secure. Head to our range of advice for protecting your data:
- How to secure your social media and email accounts
- What to do if your email has been hacked
- What is two-factor authentication and should you use it?
- How to create secure passwords
- Phone apps you need to secure right away – if you value your privacy
- Things every smartphone owner should do to keep their data safe
- Signs your computer has been hacked – and what to do about it
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