The Grinch has arrived early for Christmas this year—and it's not Jim Carrey.
Instead, dastardly cybercriminals are spreading Christmas cheer in the form of a scam text which can steal thousands of pounds from victims.
Targets are sent a message informing them they've ordered an expensive item off of Amazon that they haven't ordered at all.
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They're then tricked into calling the scammers, who impersonate legitimate customer service reps by sending you order numbers and asking you for your name and other information.
The fraudsters claim there's been several orders in your name from a distant location, and ask you to resolve this by sending a payment to 'Amazon Secure Server'.
But this links to a legitimate app which can remotely control your device, whether that's a smartphone or a computer. From there, they can access any file and open almost anything.
This could put you at major risk of not just financial losses but identity theft and much more.
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Amazon and other online retailers will not contact you out of the blue via text and ask you to install anything, so even if someone seems like the real deal, you should exercise caution.
It's also worth checking your Amazon account to verify if any orders have appeared on there, as if there's nothing there, you haven't ordered anything.
You can also contact Amazon directly through their official support channels to confirm. Just take as many steps as possible to check before you call up a number you don't know.
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