Council warns about scam Amazon calls

The SIC have warned Shetlanders to be wary after a spate of calls from scammers pretending to be from tech giant Amazon.

The council have said they have received reports that locals are receiving automated calls that tell them that a scammer has fraudulently used their personal details to sign them up for an Amazon Prime account, and asks them to press ‘1’ to cancel the transaction, which puts them through to the “real scammer” who is posing as an Amazon representative.

They will then be asked to download an application called ‘Team Viewer’ on their computer, which will hand access of the computer over to the scammer, and to log into their online banking account so that the scammer can cancel the subscription.

Trading standards team leader David Marsh reminded locals not to install any software as a result of a cold call.

“Folk in Shetland are telling us they have been receiving scam phone calls about a subscription to Amazon Prime and these calls appear to be coming from criminals who have previously targeted phone numbers in other parts of the country,” Mr Marsh said.

The council have reminded people to “stop and take a minute to think” about whether an organisation would get in touch with you out of the blue in this way, and to contact them through a known number or e-mail address instead.

If you were contacted by phone, ensure that the line is clear by calling a family member or friend (or your own mobile or home phone) before contacting the organisation to check things out with them.