Imposter Amazon Prime Scam - Be Careful!!

Imposter Amazon Prime Scam - Be Careful!! These people are taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis T

Imposter Amazon Prime Scam - Be Careful !!

These people are taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis

They are using reduced banking telephone lines to scam decent people out of thousands of pounds!

This is what happens during their scam, sent to us on Sunday:

  1.  Phone call on landline received 9.30am Thurs March 26. Caller said he was confirming my AmazonPrime subscription (which, of course, I had never knowingly subscribed to but was aware of the ease of doing this inadvertently). Caller then offered to reimburse and cancel order. Although nervous I agreed to continue as caller answered my various challenges convincingly.
  2.  I was instructed to call up form on laptop computer and advised to fill it in. I was allegedly owed 2 x 34.99 subscriptions so refund of £79.98 due.There followed a series of complex operations where claim was submitted and I was then told I had filled out the form incorrectly and, using the debit card already recorded with AP the sum of £7998.00 had gone into my account in error and please could I reimburse AP accordingly.
  3.  With the caller, by now identified as Mark, we calculated the difference as £7918.02 that I should pay back to AP (anxiety from Mark that he would lose his job if monies not paid back. Call was getting longer and longer. He offered me a £100 discount from AP for my troubles; sum owed was therefore ££7818.02. Do note that I continued to challenge and check the veracity of the call throughout.
  4.  New security from my bank First Direct made it difficult for me to login to online banking so I was ‘helped’ by Mark using TeamViewer plus another programme I can’t remember to get code from my iPhone app to access my bank account....and I succeeded. This showed that the original sum of £7998.00 had indeed appeared as a payment on my current account.
  5.  I was then guided through making an international transaction of £7818.02 as per transaction copy, see below. This was at around 11am. I should note that I have NEVER made a transaction using online banking previously, I always speak to First Direct call centre. First Direct currently have an instruction at the top of their call menu which says “due Coronavirus urgencies, do not overburden our call line, use online banking wherever possible” 
  6.  I was then asked to stay on the phone line and check my online bank info to see if monies had been paid. they had not initially. The call line was broken and Mark called back asking me to check again. He gave me his call number as 0208 638 6957. He continued to call throughout the day and insisted I keep new programmes on my machines until monies received by AP.
  7.  At 6pm I called FD and discovered the scam. I immediately removed visible new icons from my laptop. The monies appearing in my current account, £7998, had been transferred from my Bonus Savings account. The international transaction had been authorised by the International section (who had now closed for the day) and the transfer would happen overnight. 
  8.  After a 30 min wait, a very helpful First Direct call centre person got me through to their Fraud section and I reported the crime. They said they would investigate and get back to me in two weeks; they advised I call Action Fraud. Action Fraud simply inaccessible presently on phone.
  9.  Friday, March 27: bank confirmed monies had left my account (via routine daily text). I reported crime to N Yorks police, again very helpful. They send reports routinely to Action Fraud, they advised deep-clean of my computer. I will receive letter or call from Action Fraud.)
  10. Contacted sircles.net Ltd and they advised to switch off/not use laptop until deep-clean session Monday morning...again, kind and helpful.

So these are their details:

To: Firalona s.r.o €Z3555000000000742000501
Beneficiary details Beneficiary bank details
Firalona $.r.o IBAN: €2Z355500000000074200
Want to send money to: 0501
Nickname: Mark

Bank name: RAIFFEISENBANK A.S.
Address line 1: City Tower Hvezdova Bank address: CITY TOWER
1716/2b HVEZDOVA 1716/28
Address line 2: Bank city: PRAGUE
City: Prague Bank Post/Zip code: 140 78
Post/Zip code: 14078 Bank country: Czech Republic
Country: Czech Republic
Description for your records: holiday booking

Add comment