The Richard Spooner Column: Hee-haw the donkey, that 's me�

I 've been scammed. Yes, a seasoned veteran like me has fallen for the digital equivalent of the three-card trick.

It all started when I wanted to watch an England rugby international on Amazon Prime on my TV. I had an account on my laptop but I wanted to watch the game on the bigger screen of my new TV, which had Prime already loaded.

I clicked on Prime on my TV and a message appeared including a code, which I was asked to put into my laptop account.

When I did that, I received a further message inviting me to call an 0121 (Birmingham area code) number to authenticate my request to watch Prime on my TV.

I called the number and a gentleman (not!) answered. He sounded remote and had a foreign accent. But since that is something we have come to accept when calling all manner of internet service providers, I was not alarmed.

But then Mr Jackass (me) took over. I was asked for my computer password, which I gave without hesitation (hee haw!). In my defence, kick off was approaching�

My new telephone best friend then took over my screen and after much bullshine he accessed the credit card stored on my Amazon account.

And the match appeared on my screen so I thought all was well - until I thought again.

At last the penny dropped - but too late. My credit card had been debited with a £149 payment allegedly to Amazon and £100 to Apple for a gift card, which was immediately redeemed by the con artist.

I must say that when I reported this Amazon and Apple were brilliant and between them promptly refunded the £249 that had been stolen from my account after confirming unauthorised use of my card.

Afterwards, I contacted the Amazon media office, who issued the following statement: “Scammers that attempt to impersonate Amazon put our customers and our brand at risk.

“Although these scams take place outside our store, we will continue to invest in protecting customers and educating the public on scam avoidance.

“We encourage customers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe. “Please visit our help pages to find additional information on how to identify scams and report them. ”

So, you have been warned�hee haw!

JL