One of our Community Responders recounts their recent experience of being targeted in a scam that many people could fall foul of.
“So Interestingly, I had a phone call on the work mobile stating that there was a lot of money about to be taken from my Amazon account however the kind Amazon person on the other end of the phone could help me cancel it. When I was asked if they would confirm my details they were unable to do so due to data protection.
I continued to dig to gain more information. I asked where their office was based to which I got the response “in London” however they could not tell me what street they were or area. They would also not give a number for me to call them back to confirm who they are.
They raised my suspicion, and I knew at this point it was a scam. I continued to play along to see how or what information they were after the caller then asked me a series of questions, and asked me to confirm the answers regarding my device. These included questions such as “You have an Iphone right?” I quickly realised that the caller was trying to get the make and model so she would understand if I was using play store or iPhone apps. The caller than asked me to place my phone on a loud speaker, and go into my play store, then asked me to enter Anydesk and click on two red boxes and a code would appear. If I then read that code out they would be able to get all my money back and stop the transaction.
I DID NOT DO THIS and instead typed into Google to find that Anydesk is a remote access app and would have given them permission to access and control my phone. Throughout the call, the Caller was constantly trying to push the conversation along and trying to not give a lot of time for me to think, they can also be aggressive when I challenged them. I tried to end the call by this point, and was told by the caller “You leave this call and I will make sure you lose all your money and there is nothing you can do about it“. It was clear this was a last ditch attempt to try scaring me into going through with the code access.
It’s safe to say I did not follow these instructions, and hung up on the caller.”
Remember if something doesn’t feel right don’t give personal details, hang up if you are worried take some advice. Never hand over personal details, or follow instructions that scammers demand.