Text Messsage Scam – Track & Trace
Kenilworth residents are advised to be vigilant with both text messages and telephone calls as some householders have reported they have received text messages and telephone calls that are scams being operated by criminals.
The bogus texts inform members of the public that a “COVID Home Testing Team” will visit their homes.
The text specifies a date and time for the visit and that the “team” will telephone the recipient upon arrival.
The text becomes suspicious where it states that the team “will enter your property and we will remain inside the front door to put on our protective clothing. You must wait in a separate room before we come to you.”
This is simply an attempt by thieves to gain access to people’s homes under the cover of coronavirus measures. Residents are urged to ignore such texts and keep their doors closed and locked if they receive a visit and call the police immediately on 999.
NHS Test and Trace will never ask you for financial details, PINs or passwords.
They will also never visit your home.
Phone Call Scam – Amazon Prime
Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, is also warning people of a scam that has seen victims lose over £400,000.
Unsuspecting members of the public are being mercilessly targeted with automated calls which tell them a fraudster has used their personal details to sign up for an Amazon Prime subscription. The victim is then instructed to press 1 to cancel the transaction. When they do this, they are directly connected to the real scammer who poses as an Amazon customer service representative.
The criminal tells the victim the Amazon Prime subscription was purchased fraudulently and that they need remote access to the victim’s computer in order to fix a security flaw that will prevent it from happening again. The victim is instructed to download an application called Team Viewer and asked to log onto their online banking account. The software download grants the fraudster remote access to the victim’s computer and allows them to see the victim’s personal and financial details.
Other variants of the crime involve victims being told they are due a refund for an unauthorised transaction on their Amazon account.
Action Fraud has received 200 reports from people who have lost money to the scam. They have received a further 300 reports from people who received one of the scam calls but did not follow the fraudsters instructions.
Please be vigilant and also advise and support anyone who you know that maybe especially vulnerable.
Kenilworth Watch 
I have received 2 Amazon Prime calls in the last 24 hours and several in the past few months. Varying tel codes from International to 0121…
So impossible to block.