Amazon scam warning: 'Hang up immediately' warn police

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Chippy_Tea

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POLICE forces around the country are warning about a telephone scam that has tricked people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The scheme sees fraudsters pretend to be from Amazon to con victims into handing over their bank details.

The scam been reported across the country from Somerset to the north of Scotland.

Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, has received hundreds of calls about the scam since last September - of which at least 200 were from people who were tricked out of more than £400,000 in total.

How it works

The scam begins with an automated call telling victims that a fraudster has used their personnal details to sign up for an Amazon Prime subscription. The victim is then instructed to press 1 to cancel the transaction.

When they do this, they are directly connected to a scammer posing as an Amazon customer service representative.

The criminal again tells the victim that an Amazon Prime subscription was purchased fraudulently and that they need remote access to the victim's computer to fix a security flaw so that it won't happen again.


The victim is told to download an application called Team Viewer, which gives the criminal access to the victim's computer.

The victim is then asked to log on to their online banking account, at which point the fraudster can steal their banking details or even distract the victim while money is transferred out of their account

What you need to do

Amazon said: "If you receive a suspicious phone call, email or text message claiming to be from Amazon, asking for payment, personal information or offering a refund you do not expect, please do not share any personal information, and disconnect any phone call immediately.

“You can report spam calls via Action Fraud. Please also note that Amazon will never ask for your personal information, or ask you to make a payment outside of our website.

"If you received an e-mail regarding an order or Prime membership, or anything that you don’t recognise, please forward the e-mail to [email protected] and then delete it. Do not click on any links in such emails."

Pauline Smith, head of Action Fraud, said: "Unsolicited requests to remote access your computer should always raise a red flag. It's easy to feel embarrassed when faced with unexpected or complex conversations but it's okay to stop the discussion if you do not feel in control of it.

"If you've received an unexpected phone call, or other communication, stop and take a minute to think about whether an organisation would get in touch with you out of the blue in this way. Instead, contact them directly using a known email or phone number."

You should never install any software on your computer as a result of a cold call, she added.
 
I've had several over the past weeks with an automated call saying that £49.99 will be debited for amazon prime annual subscription and to press 1 to speak to someone. This is not the correct figure and because it has happened more than once you are inclined to speak to someone to correct it.

Also had calls from a telephone blocking service offering me a box for £79 that will block calls....like theirs.
Now I know it's a recognised scam I can have some fun with them. Past record is 26 minutes.
I like to get under their skin and demoralise them, sprinkle in thoughts on karma, say we are just as poor as they are and isn't it horrible some people try to steal from us using telephone scams - and have they ever had anything like that happen. It's a psychological war.
 
The best fun I had was the accident scam, she asked if I had been in an rta to which I replied I don't know but I had recently been in hospital for 3 months in a coma and was suffering memory loss and that all I knew was I was found injured at the road side, so I asked her for details or records they had about my accident while they had rung me, this went on for awhile then the penny dropped and she actually asked if I was taking this **** I said what do you think, I would to say to one of them were did you obtain this number you are to MI6 and we have a trace on your location, but you can get in trouble for that
 
Amazon, as a whole, is a magnet for scammers.
Part of my business is retailing on Amazon. The number of scams played out on sellers is truly amazing...
 
My Credit Card provider phoned me when I was in France querying some purchases I had apparently made on the card. I told him that I wold phone the Card provider direct as I didn't know who he was.

I phoned back on their "Fraud" number and discovered that it was the Card provider that had phoned. My Card had been cloned and they were actually checking off some purchases that seemed "iffy". Incredible as it sounds, they were phoning to check on only FOUR purchases that had been made, to a TOTAL of just £65!

I explained which items were not down to me, cut up my Card, organised the replacement for when I returned to the UK and the monthly Bill was amended to remove the offending purchases!

I was amazed that they had reacted so quickly! athumb..

See the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for further details. (BTW, this Legislation was enacted after the UK joined the EEC [EU] and Consumer Protection was some of the "EU Red Tape" that Mr. Gove told us he wished to change when we leave the EU.)
 
My Credit Card provider phoned me when I was in France querying some purchases I had apparently made on the card. I told him that I wold phone the Card provider direct as I didn't know who he was.

I phoned back on their "Fraud" number and discovered that it was the Card provider that had phoned. My Card had been cloned and they were actually checking off some purchases that seemed "iffy". Incredible as it sounds, they were phoning to check on only FOUR purchases that had been made, to a TOTAL of just £65!

I explained which items were not down to me, cut up my Card, organised the replacement for when I returned to the UK and the monthly Bill was amended to remove the offending purchases!

I was amazed that they had reacted so quickly! athumb..

See the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for further details. (BTW, this Legislation was enacted after the UK joined the EEC [EU] and Consumer Protection was some of the "EU Red Tape" that Mr. Gove told us he wished to change when we leave the EU.)

Had something similar a couple of months back. Had a text from random number saying that someone had used my bank card for 57p and that they would ring me to confirm. I ignored the dozen or so calls. They then started ringing my landline and in the end I rang my bank fraud dept. It was all genuine and someone had spent 57p in a Chinese restaurant. The cheek
 
Not from "Amazon" , but yesterday I got a call from someone with a very foreign accent. It took me a couple times of her repeating "Do you have Medicare or Medicaid" to understand what she was saying . I hung up.
 
Not exactly a phone scam, but I got a text recently that didn't sound kosher. Last year in May I was bitten by a dog. My health care is provided by the V A (Veterans Administration). I went to the V A clinic 20 miles north of where I live and the doctor there referred me to the local E R with paper work saying the V A would pay for it.
Eight months later I get a text saying my hospital bill is ready. I went to the hospital to question this and was told my balance was zero and they wouldn't have texted me even if I did owe anything.
 
virgin media were going to disconnect my broadband unless I clicked on a link to animalrightscoalition.com... :rolleyes:

always hover over a link but dont click, you'll see where you are really going to be sent to.

if i'd have been with them it would have looked convincing ashock1
 
I recently came across a few videos on YouTube, of hackers who allow these scammers to get into their PC and then proceed to destroy the scammers data and PC, great fun to watch the tables being turned and you should see how upset these scumbags get at the taste of their own medicine.
 
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