PHONE scammers are targeting residents in a county town.

The caller claims to represent Amazon Prime, a paid subscription service offered by the online retailer Amazon, giving people access to services such as free two day delivery, when calling homes in Malvern.

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A spokesman for Amazon, said: “We take phishing and spoofing attempts on our customers seriously.

“We will never call a customer for payment outside of our website.

“If a customer has concerns or receives a call they believe is not from Amazon, they can check the Amazon.co.uk help pages for guidance.

“Customers should never provide personal or financial information to unsolicited callers, or ask them to take any actions on their Amazon account."

The scams starts with an automated telephone call, ending with the victim downloading a piece of software, which gives the criminal access to the victim’s computer.

The victim is then asked to log on to their online banking account, at which point the fraudster can steal their banking details or even distract the victim while money is transferred out of their account

A spokesman for BT said: “BT Call Protect will help customers avoid nuisance calls on their landline by diverting unwanted calls to junk voicemail.

“The service is completely free to all BT home phone customers, making it simple to divert nuisance calls.

“If you receive an nuisance call, hang up the phone, dial 1572 and follow the simple instructions to add it to your personal blacklist.”

The scam been reported across the country from Somerset to the north of Scotland.

Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, has received many calls about the scam since last September - of which at least 200 were from people who were tricked out of more than £400,000 in total.

Detective inspector Emma Wright from the West Mercia Police economic crime unit, said: “We are advising all reports of these calls to be passed onto actionfraud.police.uk, and reminding computer users to evaluate their online safety.

"Tips include ensuring you have up to date security software and using secure passwords.

“If you are able to, I would recommend visiting actionfraud.police.uk, who have detailed advice on what to look out for."