There has been warning of a rise in scam phone calls coming from Scammers that are telephoning Amazon Prime customers in an attempt to access private information and bank account details. Usually fraudsters will attempt to mimic huge, familiar companies, by using phishing emails or texts with malicious links.
Households are receiving automated telephone calls informing them that they have opened an Amazon Prime account and that they should ‘press one’ to cancel the transaction. Upon pushing the button, the call connects to a fraudster posing as an Amazon customer service representative.
The scammer then informs the recipient of the call that their subscription was purchased fraudulently due to a supposed ‘security flaw’ on the targeted person’s computer.
The bogus Amazon representative then asks for remote access to the recipient’s computer, supposedly to fix the security breach. However, this is where people become victims.
Remote access gives control access allowing the scammers to steal personal information, including passwords and banking information. An email version of this scam has also emerged claiming the target has started an Amazon music subscription charged at £28.99 per month.
However, by clicking on the link provided to ‘cancel’ the subscriptions and ‘receive a refund’ victims are again opening themselves up to parting with their account details and having their accounts raided.
Amazon have said that they would never request to remotely access your computer and to never give any information out unless the identity of the caller/sender can be verified.
Cyber Wise recommends that you remain vigilant to these new forms of attack and to never give any information away unless you are certain you can trust the person you are telling.