Beware the 'press one' phone scam

Just a heads-up from the Diary that an old phone call scam is active again, writes Brian Byrne. It's known as the 'press button one' scam. You get a phone call saying some account or other 'needs to be renewed' and to 'press one' for details.

The accounts are regular ones, such as well-known national internet service providers. So the odds are that occasionally the scammer will hit on someone with such an account, who will follow the request to 'press one'.

The current 'hook' is Amazon Prime, which many households have. The scammer then informs the recipient of the call that their subscription was purchased fraudulently due to a supposed 'security flaw' on the targeted person's computer. The bogus Amazon representative asks for remote access to the recipient's computer, supposedly to fix the security breach. But remote access gives control access, allowing the scammers to steal personal information, including passwords and banking information.

A variant is that someone answers and keeps you talking, but you have unknowingly been transferred to a premium line which charges you several euros a minute. The 'patter' also tries to elicit personal and financial details from the call recipient.

The call to our house this week could have seemed legitimate, but we don't respond to such unsolicited phone contacts. You shouldn't, either. 

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