Got two calls within an hour or two of each other this morning to my home landline, along the same lines as one or two I had some weeks ago - an automated message purporting to be from Amazon, thanking me for "renewing my Prime account" at some ludicrous alleged price and inviting me to press some number if I wanted to cancel. I'm guessing they do manage to snare some people because Amazon do push their Prime subscriptions heavily when you order stuff online and get to the delivery options (so it's a cunning choice of hook for a scam) and I've twice in the past subscribed for a free trial period and then had to take steps to cancel later (as I have close to zero interest in the various benefits of a Prime package, other than getting goods delivered which I order on their site).
The clues to its being a scam include (a) why the hell would Amazon call me about this or indeed anything, (b) the implausibly stupid scary price and (c) the fact that I know I haven't actually subscribed for Prime since I last cancelled (with acknowledgement).
I'm guessing the scam works, like many other "press X" type automated phone scams, by the "press X" button putting you through to a premium rate line (a slice of the fees for which gets passed on by your phone company to the scammers). I think I've heard before that that "works", and that punters have indeed been liable for premium rate phone calls when they've taken the bait. If I had the time or energy, and knew where to start looking, I'd want to find out how the hell that is treated as compatible with English consumer protection and/or contract law, given that you would be being charged a rate for a call to which you have not been alerted, much less consented. But I don't have the time or the consumer protection know-how, so I'll just try to keep refraining from pressing X.
The clues to its being a scam include (a) why the hell would Amazon call me about this or indeed anything, (b) the implausibly stupid scary price and (c) the fact that I know I haven't actually subscribed for Prime since I last cancelled (with acknowledgement).
I'm guessing the scam works, like many other "press X" type automated phone scams, by the "press X" button putting you through to a premium rate line (a slice of the fees for which gets passed on by your phone company to the scammers). I think I've heard before that that "works", and that punters have indeed been liable for premium rate phone calls when they've taken the bait. If I had the time or energy, and knew where to start looking, I'd want to find out how the hell that is treated as compatible with English consumer protection and/or contract law, given that you would be being charged a rate for a call to which you have not been alerted, much less consented. But I don't have the time or the consumer protection know-how, so I'll just try to keep refraining from pressing X.
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