A retired couple living in Midale have cancelled their landline after being the target of a phone scam.

Connie Erickson said she and her husband have received multiple calls this year from people claiming to work for Amazon.

"When they call, they use a different number, so you don't know who it is that's calling you," Erickson said. "And there's no name on the display, and so you answer it. And now you've answered it, so they know you're home at a certain time of the day."

Erickson said a recording told her that she owed money to Amazon.

"I don't even have an account and I never bought from there," she said.

Erickson said the constant phony calls prompted her and her husband to cancel their landline. They now both own cell phones, but Erickson said her husband Eugene is still getting occasional calls from the scammers on his cell.

"Somehow they've got his cell phone number. Same deal...it might be a different amount of money, but they got his name and they got his cell phone number," she said.

Erickson added that eventually you're able to speak with a human once you press a certain button.

"I remember doing that once, and I got somebody that didn't speak very good English," she said. "So I thought, 'Okay he's in some other country representing Amazon.' They just probably pick a company that's well known. What they're trying to do is get your credit card number. As soon as they indicated that this is what they need to go any further, I just hang up on them."

Erickson said she hasn't received any scam calls on her own cell phone since cancelling her landline.

"They're getting less and less it seems," she said. "And now it's getting to be Christmas buying season, so I'm sure that it's probably going to start up again because any time these scammers can make some cash, they're doing it."