Police are investigating the theft of £70,000 from an island resident.Fortunately, the money has since been recovered.

The victim received a convincing call about a suspicious Amazon transaction.

This resulted in the offender gaining control of a computer and removing funds from the victim’s bank account.Police say the money was recovered after officers contacted the bank.They have advised taking the following steps to help prevent becoming a victim yourself.

• If you receive a call from someone who claims that you may be the victim of a fraud; take their name and role and then hang up. Contact the bank using the number on your card and verify that the caller is legitimate.

• If the caller asks you to download software hang up; a bank will never ask you to do this.

• Never give out your bank details to a caller; your bank will never ask for this information.

• If possible; ask for a name, telephone number and email address of the caller and then ‘Google’ them. This will show if those details have been used in previous scams.

• If you are even slightly suspicious that a call is a scam; hang up and contact your bank.

• Never use the telephone number the caller gives you; always use the number from your card.

• If you believe that a friend or relative may be vulnerable to this type of scam please take the time to speak with them about protecting themselves from fraudsters. Prevention is the best tool we have in these matters as once the money is transferred it is very difficult to recover.

• If you suspect that you may have been the victim of a scam call your bank immediately and then report to Action Fraud.