Last December, I received an email from a friend stating he had laryngitis.
He asked for my help purchasing £800 of Airbnb vouchers, which he wanted to give to a friend whose daughter has cancer.
Later the same day, my friend told me his email account had been hacked and that this had been a scam.
I asked my bank HSBC to stop the payment, but it failed to do so and won’t reimburse me.
Please help.
L.A., Wirral
Tricked: A reader was tricked out of £800 in a callous Amazon voucher scam after their friend’s email was hacked
Sally Hamilton replies: This winter has been a bad season for colds and flu, and it seems there has been a sharp rise in laryngitis cases, too – at least, if emails in my spam folder have anything to go by.
I have received numerous missives from people claiming to have laryngitis with an urgent request for me to contact them.
The scam starts with them accessing their victim’s email account and messaging their contacts, mimicking their style of writing.
The request is often for digital vouchers, as these can be spent quickly and become almost impossible to trace.
By claiming in the emails that the sender can’t talk due to a sore throat, the crooks stop targets from phoning the sender and uncovering the scam.
You said your friend is religious with charitable convictions, meaning that the request was in character.
You purchased £400 of Airbnb vouchers through Amazon, which were sent straight to your friend’s email address.
You were then asked to buy £400 more as the scammers told you the first amount was not enough to cover the booking.
Amazon blocked this attempted purchase but you didn’t want to let your friend down, so bought them using Tesco online instead.
A few hours later your real friend contacted you to say that his email had been hacked and it was all a scam. You rang HSBC’s helpline, but it had closed for the day.
The next day you tried its online chat service. The bank told you it could not do anything until your payments, which were pending, were taken.
The call handler said she would keep an eye on the payments and block them. You destroyed the card you used and contacted Amazon, but the vouchers had been spent.
To have a chance of cancelling at this point, Amazon said it needed the voucher numbers, which you never had as they went straight to the scammer.
When you followed up on December 30, HSBC told you that as you had authorised the payments there was nothing it could do.
Livid with this response, you came to me. I felt you had been given false hope by your bank so asked HSBC to reopen your case.
A few days later HSBC told you there are no dispute rights for gift voucher transactions.
Gift cards are treated as cash, which means you could not request a chargeback on your debit card.
HSBC said if it had known at the start the scam involved vouchers, it would not have suggested reimbursement. However, it recognised the poor service you received and offered £200 as an apology.
A spokesman says: ‘We urge customers to stop and think, even if a message or call appears to be from someone you know, as this is a common tactic used by scammers.’
Although grateful for my intervention you are taking your case to the Financial Ombudsman. I wish you luck.
Another reader, M.N., from Kent, fell for the same ruse, purchasing £500 of Airbnb vouchers via Amazon. He grew suspicious when asked to buy more.
On examining the emails he noticed the first one came from his friend’s correct email address, but all subsequent communications showed an address with an ‘s’ added to the end of the surname.
Airbnb said without the voucher serial numbers, which he didn’t have, there was nothing it could do. He asked for my help to retrieve the money from his bank, also HSBC.
Following my intervention, HSBC offered £250 as a goodwill gesture. As a thank you, you kindly donated £25 to the Marfan Trust, a charity I support.
People need to act fast if they wake up to this scam in time. By contacting the retailer swiftly, they might be able to cancel the order if it is being processed. If possible, make a note of the gift card numbers and PIN.
Airbnb says: ‘While suspicious activity is rare, we take all reports seriously and investigate and take action.’
Amazon warns: ‘Review email senders before clicking on email attachments. Look for misspellings or added or substituted characters.’
Smart meter tripled my energy bills
Utility Warehouse installed a smart meter at my home in September 2025.
I have storage heaters, which were previously on low-cost rates that offer cheaper energy at certain times of the day.
My bills were in the region of £60 a month in winter. They are now £199 a month. UW keeps asking for readings, even though they are sent automatically.
When I complain, I get a letter or email asking me to install a smart meter or to give meter readings.
I asked UW to send somebody round to check the meter and they told me I would have to pay for a visit.
L.K., Isle of Wight
Sally Hamilton replies: By the time you contacted me you felt pretty heated, not only because of UW’s failure to resolve the high bills but also by its constant nagging to install a smart meter when you already have one.
You knew the sums couldn’t be correct as the only electricity you had been using for weeks was powering the storage heaters left on while you were away caring for your terminally ill parents.
On my intervention, UW found the erroneous bills were caused by a technical blunder with the setup of your new meter, which has now been resolved.
UW agreed to credit your account with £325, which included the overcharged amounts and a goodwill gesture.
It confirmed you will now be on as cheap a tariff for your storage heaters as you were before the smart meter was installed.
It also promised to cease communications about installing a new meter.
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk ¿ include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.