UK Scam Alerts, November 2026

1. Fake Amazon account alerts and screen sharing

The call, text or email says there's suspicious activity on your Amazon account. Items you didn't choose have been added to the basket, they're going to an address that isn't yours, and someone is trying to pay with your bank details. You can stop it, the caller says, but only if you do exactly as they tell you.

What they tell you to do is where it goes wrong. Report Fraud lists the instructions people were given: share your screen, download a money-transfer app, install remote access software, hand over a passport or driving licence "for verification", or authorise a payment to cancel a gift card purchase. Every one of those puts your money or your computer in their hands.

Between 5 and 14 October, £86,837 was stolen this way. That's over £9,600 a day. Report Fraud had 110 reports naming Amazon impersonation in those nine days, and 60% came from people aged 50 to 79. Report Fraud's alert has the full figures.

Amazon doesn't ask you to share your screen, install anything or move money to protect an account. Hang up. Don't trust the caller ID, because it can be faked. Open the Amazon app yourself and look at your orders. If the basket is empty, there's no problem. If it was your bank they claimed to be, ring 159, which connects you to your bank's real fraud line. Then text 7726 with the word "Call" followed by the scammer's number.

Already installed something at their request? Disconnect the computer from the internet and uninstall it, then ring your bank. Remote access tools are the part I get called about most, because the money is only half of it. Once someone has been in your PC, you can't take it for granted that it's clean.

2. Rogue roofers and phantom repairs

Citizens Advice named suspected roofing scams as the biggest scam its Consumer Service saw in the year to 31 August. Of 22,112 goods and services complaints marked as scams, 2,205 were about roofing. That's one in four of all roofing complaints. Doorstep sales tactics featured in 77% of them.

The pattern is an invented problem. One woman Citizens Advice spoke to, a 65-year-old living alone, posted an ad about a dripping gutter. Two men phoned straight away and offered to fix it that day for £250. Twenty minutes in, they said water was rotting the wood and she needed "eave protection" for £2,500. An hour later they showed her a bucket of cement and said it was crumbling under the tiles. She paid £3,500. Next day there was no sign of any work, and the phone went unanswered. She did get her money back through her bank, but only after contacting Citizens Advice, Trading Standards and the Financial Ombudsman.

Her traders had been thrown off the platform before and simply re-registered under a different name.

Roofs are out of sight, so you can't check what's been done. Be wary of anyone who knocks or phones offering work you didn't ask for, wants cash or full payment upfront, or won't put anything in writing. Get quotes from traders you've found yourself. If you agree to work while they're at your home, you have 14 days to cancel, and they must tell you that in writing. Citizens Advice's Consumer Service is on 0808 223 1133. The Citizens Advice report has the full findings.