DC Gareth Jordan from Dyfed Powys Police has informed Penarth Town Council of a spike in scam calls in which the criminal pretends to be an Amazon employee.

The call often states that "£79.97 is owed – but if you don't want to renew, cancel Amazon by pressing '1'."

Other times the scammer states that there has been unauthorised spending on the account (often over £1,000), and again, the request is to press '1' to go through to the 'Fraud Department'.

If '1' is pressed, the victim will be connected to a 'customer representative' who will attempt to obtain as many personal details as possible from the victim.

They will also try to gain access to their bank details – often under the auspice that it is to provide a refund.

These criminals are very adept at social engineering and can sound thoroughly convincing.

Victims have reported surprise at the fact their scammer had an English accent.

This is apparently because many criminal gangs now use previous UK-based victims to carry out the phone calls, in order for them to pay off their debt.

The Council has issued their advice for if such a call is received:

"For any of these types of call, it is best to hang up, and then check your account online by using the app on your phone, or typing in the correct address and then logging into your account that way to check.

"Do not follow links if the criminal texts or emails them through – these will normally take you to fake sites that look authentic.

"Please feel free to share this advice to help try to stop these criminals being successful."