And finally…parrot and Alexa in cahoots in online scam

A parrot owner who was left stumped when an online order mysteriously appeared at her southeast London home has attributed the purchased to her feathered friend mimicking her voice to use Amazon’s Alexa voice-controlled system.

Corienne Pretorius’ pet Buddy the parrot was mimicking his owner when he placed his unsanctioned order of a set of gift boxes worth £10, with the collusion of Alexa.

The bird’s stunt triggered a household inquest but ruling out her husband and son, she figured out Buddy was to blame after hearing him interact with the device.

“I couldn’t believe it when I realised that Buddy had made an Amazon order,” the South African said.

Users can shout commands to the Amazon Echo speaker to access a host of services. It responds to the name ‘Alexa’.

The parrot squawks “Alexa!” and the device next to his cage lights up blue, indicating that it is listening for commands.

“Buddy said ‘Alexa’ and some gibberish, and the machine replied, ‘What is it you want to order?” Pretorius said.

She thought nothing more of it until she got a notification that an order had been placed for some golden gift boxes.

“I laughed out loud because I knew then that it was Buddy.”

Amazon said customers were asked to confirm a purchase by saying “yes”, and the settings can be adjusted to turn off voice purchasing.

“Buddy is hilarious. We have a cat and he mimics that, too. He is such an attention-seeker. He also swears in Afrikaans. When we go to bed, he says, ‘goodnight’,” Corienne said.