Say No to the Amazon Scam

Lara

Lara

Friend of the Arts
Location
Mid-Atlantic Coast
This scam is rampant right now according to my fraud department. I never thought I'd go this far with scammers but they were so good. I just opened an Amazon account yesterday and it was complicated because I was on with my daughter but wanted my own account. So we made the change together on Facetime. I worried at the time if info we were sharing could be hacked via Facetime.

A woman with an Indian accent called me today saying she was "from Amazon" and noticed that 15 accounts had been opened in my name in NY and had already purchased a computer for $1,400. She tried to get my CC and SS card information from me to help me stop this fast. When I said no and that I would just call "my bank" about it myself she asked for the name of my bank so she could call them for me, she sounded so smart and caring that I half believed her.

She then transferred me to a man with the same Indian accent saying he was from my "bank" and wanted my account number or social security number. I said no, I wanted to call the my fraud department. He immediately transferred me to my "fraud department", another guy with an Indian accent.

You would not believe what he told me I had to do. He said he was going to call my local sheriff to come to my house and give me a new social security card and that I should take that to a place to get all my bank money from there asap...but he said it wouldn't be cash but rather all on a card. I said I'm going to hang up now and he said, "If you hang up the government will never give you your money back for that computer purchase...I said I'm going to call my fraud department myself right now and hung up.

I called the fraud department and he said this is the most common scam going on right now and many people are losing all their money.

My bank's fraud department found no fraudulent activity on my account regarding Amazon purchases but gave me a Provisional Credit for $888 for monies taken by someone named "Mary from FL" of Verizon (I live in NC) in a very nefarious way...until the Fraud department can investigate.
 

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Jeni said:
what amazes me with all the red flags in what you wrote .... wonder how many fall for this stuff..... who would give them any of this stuff
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The fraud department said it sadly happens alot.
Now with Artificial Intelligence, perfect replication of peoples voices but not really them, same with people's faces...it's getting harder and harder. We all have to stay on our toes!
 
Jeni said:
what amazes me with all the red flags in what you wrote .... wonder how many fall for this stuff..... who would give them any of this stuff
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I think that even the most level headed people sometimes panic in such situations and common sense escapes them for a few moments and all it takes is a few moments for the scammers to get what they need. Thankfully Laura did not have such a panic moment !

I kind of relate it to having a flat tire on the highway. Everyone has been told what to do in such an event since they were teens but when that flat tire actually does happen on the highway some panic (understandably) and forget all the safety precautions that has been ingrained in their head.
 
"Amazon" use to phone about suspicious charges on my charge card - for $200 and $400. I ALWAYS PRESS "8" to talk to the FRAUD department. When a representative from India respond, I start YELLING and SINGING "madre chaud" (meaning "mother ****er" ) and complete the call with a LOUD police whistle. Surprisingly, the calls have stopped.
 
Lara said:
I don't know for sure about Facetime but my daughter told me that there is a growing number of scammers closely connected to Amazon
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Not sure what she means by "closely connected to Amazon". Is she implying they're tied to Amazon ... or are these just scammers who target Amazon customers?

Gaer said:
I just got an e-mail warning me about Amazon scams,
but I'm not going to click on it!
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I got that, too. Mine was actually from Amazon warning about various types of scammers.
 
To understand if email is legitimately sourced thus safe to open requires viewing where email has been sent from.

As a tech person, one of the things I dislike most about email applications in this era is that they make viewing email headers difficult often hiding such from any but savvy users. Do not understand why those creating such tools have changed such applications from the way email originally worked. Obviously some pinheads thought header information would confuse those with little computer skills so over the last two decades have been increasingly hiding such information by typically instead just displaying people or business pseudo names stored in Contact files that makes spoofing by hackers much easier.

Unfortunately because there are several different email applications, browsers, and operating systems. There is no single advice as to how to get at such information, so I'll provide some advice herein. The below link describes how to view raw headers on some applications.

https://www.cmu.edu/iso/aware/email-headers.html

My suggestion is to web search on how to do so for your system. Then actually practice how to do so on a few emails while creating a local email-help.txt file you can easily open on your device any time you are suspicious of an email and may have forgotten what to do.

For example, one of my full Yahoo emails header from PG&E, my electricity utility, is shown below. The real source of the email is after Return-Path:
that shows
bounce-54_HTML-40866764-435357-7232777-14962@bounce.em.pge.com

The important part is that the end text beyond the @ symbol's last two dots shows the correct domain (.com) that was indeed pge.com. The bounce.em can be ignored because they are separated by earlier dots. Spoofers may put "pge" in their phony address in front of that end text dot to try and fool those looking at the header. For example may create:
jackZ@bounce.em.pge.gmail.com

-------------------------
Received: from 127.0.0.1
by atlas-sbc-production.v2-mail-prod1-bf1.omega.yahoo.com pod-id atlas--sbc-production-bf1-555bb48c8d-7dqjm.bf1.yahoo.com with HTTP; Sun, 23 Jul 2023 17:50:31 +0000
Return-Path: <bounce-54_HTML-40866764-435357-7232777-14962@bounce.em.pge.com>
X-Originating-Ip: [136.147.188.63]
Received-SPF: pass (domain of bounce.em.pge.com designates 136.147.188.63 as permitted sender)
Authentication-Results: atlas-sbc-production.v2-mail-prod1-bf1.omega.yahoo.com;
dkim=pass header.i=@em.pge.com header.s=200608;
spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=bounce.em.pge.com;
dmarc=pass(p=NONE) header.from=em.pge.com;
X-Apparently-To: johnXYZc@sbcglobal.net; Sun, 23 Jul 2023 17:50:32 +0000
--------------------------

If others have trouble getting at that information, please ask for help herein. More about email addresses below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_address#:~:text=An email address identifies an email box to,1980s, and updated by RFC 5322 and 6854.
 
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Devi said:
Not sure what she means by "closely connected to Amazon". Is she implying they're tied to Amazon ... or are these just scammers who target Amazon customers?


I got that, too. Mine was actually from Amazon warning about various types of scammers.
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I didnā€™t interpret her comment to mean that Amazon was involved in any way with the scam. Iā€™ll ask her as I canā€™t speak for her but I took it as if the scammers are hacking into Amazonā€™s business affairs and maybe their software in order to target customers.
 
Lara said:
I didnā€™t interpret her comment to mean that Amazon was involved in any way with the scam. Iā€™ll ask her as I canā€™t speak for her but I took it as if the scammers are hacking into Amazonā€™s business affairs and maybe their software in order to target customers.
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Okay, but I seriously doubt that. If I had to make a (worthless) guess, I'd guess the Facetime session.
 
What makes these Scammers (that targeted me) so effective is that they are Scammers offering to protect you from Scammers by helping to close out your BANK account...not your Amazon account.

Theyā€™re a fraudulent fraud department. So the trust starts from the beginning by its very nature of planting fear and then coming across as your savior.

Thatā€™s how I initially felt. They scared the begeebees outta' me at first when they said 15 accounts were opened in my name in NY and a purchase was made for $1400.
`
 
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You were very fortunate, that you are sensible enough, not to be
taken in by the scammer.

I received an email from Amazon, warning about scams and to be
careful, it might have come from a scammer, but although I thought
that it was OK, I didn't click any links, I will post the text of that email
below for all to read, I will remove any links, I removed 2, but left the
Amazon one.

Mike.

Scammers are creative and they constantly devise new schemes, exploit new technologies and change tactics to avoid detection. Stay safe by learning to identify and avoid scams.​

Prime membership scams:​

These are unexpected calls/texts/emails that refer to a costly membership fee or an issue with your membership and ask you to confirm or cancel the charge. These scammers try to convince you to provide payment or bank account information in order to reinstate a membership.
Amazon will never ask you to provide payment information for products or services over the phone. Visit the Message Center on Amazon.co.uk or on our app to review authentic emails from Amazon. To verify your Prime Membership status or make payments, log into your Amazon account, and go to Your Account.


Account suspension/Deletion scams:​

Scammers send texts, emails and phone calls stating that your account will be suspended or deleted and prompt you to click on a fraudulent link or verbally provide information to ā€œverify your account.ā€ Customers who land on these pages or receive these phone calls are then lured to provide account information such as payment information or account login credentials.

Amazon will never ask you to disclose your password or verify sensitive personal information over the phone or on any website other than Amazon.co.uk. Please do not click on any links or provide your information to anyone over the phone without authenticating the email or phone call. If you have questions about the status of your account, go directly to Amazon.co.uk or on our app to view your account details, including the Message Center which displays a log of communications sent from Amazon.


 
Gaer said:
I just got an e-mail warning me about Amazon scams,
but I'm not going to click on it!
Click to expand...

I got the same email yesterday but only briefly scanned it before deleting.
Basically it just said don't give out information concerning your Amazon account by responding to email.
Said to go to the Amazon website and check for messages there if there is an actual concern.
 
RE: Amazon Letters about Prime Membership Scams and Account Suspension/Deletion Scams...My scammers weren't after my Amazon account nor any Amazon info. They were solely after my bank account...ALL of it.

My scammers said some fictitious NY scammers had opened 15 accounts in my name and already had purchased a big Amazon item. At that point they dropped Amazon and focused on "saving me quickly" from my bank account being compromised by more Amazon purchases

They were offering to take ALL of my money out of my bank quickly before more Amazon products were purchased by these fictitious NY scammers. And then proposed a crazy plan to get my money back to me onto a card instead of cash and provide me a new social security card.
`
 

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