Phone call from Amazon? It could be a scam say Police

Dyfed-Powys Police is warning the public of scam phone calls from fraudsters pretending to be from Amazon. The calls may be by a person or automated.

DC Gareth Jordan from Dyfed Powys Police Economic Crime Unit stated that they have been noticing a large increase in scam calls where the criminal calls the victim and pretends that they are from Amazon.

“The call may state that £79.97 is owed – but if they don’t want to renew, they can cancel Amazon by pressing ‘1’. It may be a call that states that there has been unauthorised spending on the account (often over £1,000), and again, the request is to press ’1’ to go through to the ‘Fraud Department’.

“With any of these types of call, If ‘1’ is pressed, then the scammers will attempt to get as many personal details as possible from the victim, and then try to gain access to their bank details.

“Unfortunately, these criminals are very adept at social engineering. Many people think that the scammers will have a ‘foreign’ accent, but this is not always the case.

“For any of these types of call, it is best to hang up, and then check your account online by using the app on your phone, or typing in the correct address such as http://www.amazon.co.uk and then logging into your account that way and checking. Do not follow links if the criminal texts or emails them through – these will normally take you to fake sites that look authentic.