From the urgency demanded by the scammer to the genuine-looking correspondence, sadly, many people will be caught out by scams. Recently, Action Fraud has warned members of the public about a scam which has been in operation, in which fraudsters have pretended to be from Amazon.

Amazon Prime scam: What has happened?

Action Fraud has shared some details about the scam, which involves victims receiving an automated call, which informs them they they have been charged for an Amazon Prime subscription.

The individual is then instructed to press the number one on their keypad in order to cancel the supposed transaction.

Upon doing this, the victim is directed to a fraudster who is posing as an Amazon customer service representative.

DON'T MISS

The fraudster then claims that the subscription was purchased fraudulently, and that remote access to their computer is necessary in order to fix a security flaw that will prevent it from reoccurring.

They are then told to download a remote access application. This is often the “Team Viewer” app, and this grants the fraudster access to their computer.

Then, the criminal can mis-use the software and monitor the victim logging onto their online bank account - allowing them to see the victim’s personal and financial details.

There are other tacts of this crime, and this includes fraudsters stating that the recipient is eligible for a refund following an “unauthorised transaction” on their Amazon account.

A spokesperson for Amazon told Express.co.uk: “We take phishing and spoofing attempts on our customers seriously, and will never call a customer for payment outside of our website.