Scam call warning: Amazon Prime ‘renewal’

This could simply be called ” Well known product/system/application” “scam warning”

Don’t trust a phone call, don’t trust an email, don’t trust a website, don’t trust a bank to know and implement secure online systems, don’t trust someone knocking on your door to sell double glazing.

And sorry wavechange, I’ve seen “raising awareness of scams”, in action, it can be as bad as actual scams since most folk are bamboozled by legitimate technology and are happy to spread hoax nonsense.

Educate yourself on the technology you use, simple, common sense measures protect you from most scams.

Unless you expect a call from your bank, it’s not your bank. If you’re worried, call them back on a separate phone using a number you already know – it’s on the back of your card, make a note of it now.

Unique passwords for anything important – get a decent password manager, use 2 factor authentication, preferably NOT SMS based. Don’t worry about changing a password unless you think it’s compromised. Longer passwords are better than random ‘complex’ ones – can you type it into your keypad easily without cycling thro keypads?

Decide whether you want convenience or security on your phone. If it’s convenience, don’t use it for banking.

Patch your computer (or phone/tablet) and any applications, use good AV, don’t install trivial applications or games on something you use for critical work, or click on unsolicited links.

And if you have Alexa, Siri, Cortana or Google whatever, don’t worry, the corporations already own you and will keep you in a domesticated izombie state until you are no longer economically useful at which point even scammers will abandon you.

I received one of these phone messages yesterday stating my amazon prime account was increasing to £39.99. The gentleman was very convincing that Amazon had recognised this was not a genuine payment and were going to refund the 39.99. He went on to state I needed to update security on my computer and that he could help me. It was only at the point where he convinced me to download software to enable him to access my computer remotely that I took fright and hung up. Fortunately I never gave him this ability. I hope I avoided being scammed at the last moment. Have now set up two factor authentication on my amazon account. What scares me is that I do not consider myself as someone easily taken in but having used my prime account a lot that day made it all seem more genuine. It was good timing on the scammers part. Was this a coincidence or not?

Pleased Which has picked this up. I had two of these calls yesterday. I hung up at once, suspecting a scam. I added the first call to “blocked numbers” but received another one later from a slightly different number which I’ve also blocked. Is there no way these criminals can be traced and prosecuted? I lot of people my age (72) are not as savvy about computer and phone security as I am.

The scammers are also targeting Virgin Media customers. I received an email stating that my payment details were out of date and unless corrected my service would be discontinued in 10 days time. I checked online, (but not using the email link given to me!), and confirmed all payment details were up to date. The email was deleted unactioned.