I just fell for an AA breakdown phishing scam

[FellforPhish]

I'm amazed at how clever it was and at the same time feel so stupid that I fell for it.

I've had a letter through the post and emails all looking genuine. They had my name, address, email address, membership number, length of membership and renewal date. Long story short I've now given them my telephone number and linked it to all the details they already had via WhatsApp (again, a verified AA.com account).

I just feel so stupid, like one of those women you hear on the radio saying how they feel so stupid for falling for it(!).

Any advice or similar stories welcome.

Don’t beat yourself up, I did the same with a phone call the other night allegedly from NatWest, took me by surprise, chap was well spoken. Only woke up when I realised he wanted me to authorise a payment for what he was buying with my money in the app.

They are very convincing and I always thought people that fall for these must be rather silly, but when it happens to you you realise it can happen to anyone.

@SunnyD4ys the gift was worth a lot more. The payment was to join some sort of reward scheme / members club which seemed plausible at the time.
But thanks for making me feel even more stupid.

Please don't feel stupid @Yachties. You were just going about your busy, everyday life - dealing with the many, many honest interactions we manage every single day - and those bastards put their entire thought and effort into figuring out how to take advantage of that (instead of doing constructive work, like you do).

You're not remotely alone or unusual in falling for it. Last year £1.17 billion was stolen in online fraud. We've come a long way from the days of Nigerian princes.

If you want a silver lining, take a moment to appreciate that we do still live in a high trust society - where people usually are interacting honestly with us - and so that's what we expect. Our openness and goodwill towards those many, many honest interactions we have each day is what makes our society what it is. We win from that.

Thank you @strawberrybubblegum