Consumers have been warned not to fall prey to fraudsters who are targeting Amazon Prime customers, many of whom became members for the first time during the Covid-19 crisis.
Security experts said the fraudsters were calling people claiming to be from "Amazon Prime Security" and saying their Amazon account had been compromised in California and multiple payments had been made from their accounts.
After gaining the trust of this person, the fraudster instructs them to download TeamViewer, a brand of remote access software that was subsequently used to access the victim's online bank account.
While this is by no means a new fraud, scammers are believed to have taken advantage of the fact that many families have signed up to Amazon Prime since the epidemic broke out.
This week the consumer group Which? warned of the dangers of computer takeover scams which cost victims more than £16m a year.
It highlighted the case of a woman from Brighton who lost almost £7,000 in July to a cold caller claiming to be from Amazon
Prime security who tricked her into downloading TeamViewer. The fraudsters took over her laptop and a total of £6,900 was taken from her bank account and credit card.
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