Article (PSA-0031)
Submitted by: Billy Joe Long
Company: PSA Computer Services
Titled: Amazon Centered Scams?
Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world, with millions of customers around the world. The shear volume of Amazon customers presents a rich target base for would be scammers. At their Help & Customer Service webpage, Amazon put out a statement warning their millions of customers about new scams designed to steal their hard earned money. They warned their customers that: “Amazon will never ask you to provide payment information for products or services over the phone … [We will] never ask you to disclose your password or verify sensitive personal information over the phone”
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) says that between July 2020 and June 2021 around 96,000 people were targeted by some type of Amazon related scam resulting in the loss of at least 27,000,000 dollars.
Here is an example of a well known scam:
A scammer pretends to inform you of a problem with your Amazon Prime account. Some include text messages, emails and even phone calls saying that your Amazon account or Prime membership was deleted or suspended. It also includes a fraudulent link to a fraudulent webpage or tries to get members to provide information verbally to “verify” their account. Customers who land on these pages or receive these phone calls are then lured into providing account information such as payment information or account login credentials. You have officially been scammed!
Legitimate Amazon pages contain “amazon.com” or “amazon.com/support”. You need to take a close look at and verify all links first before handing over any information, because what you see may not be the actual destination address. These scammers push a sense of urgency to short circuit any sound reasoning of the victim. Amazon mentions this technique in the following statement, “… scammers will try to create a sense of urgency in a bid to get victims to click a fake link or provide them with information. Be wary any time someone tries to convince you that you must act now.”
The FTC points out that these particular scams are particularly effective against older people, especially those over the age of 60 since they generally did not grow up in the “computer culture”. The FTC stated, “People aged 60 and older were particularly at risk of such scams, while younger people were not.” However, there are many reports indicating 82.9% of young adults have been tricked by suspicious links. As a local IT service provider, I can personally attest that scammers are successfully stealing money from all age groups.
In 2023 there were at-least 202 different “Amazon Prime” related scams reported and another 186 “Amazon” related scams reported.
Here are a couple of the most successful scams to be wary of:
1. “Off-Platform Payments”: As the name states, the customer is encouraged to pay for a product using a payment platform, other than Amazon. This works by an Amazon seller creating an Amazon listing for what appears to be a genuine product, which may even include some faked reviews to legitimize the product. When you try to buy the product the seller will contact you directly with a link to another payment platform in an effort to trick you into making payments using other apps, such as CashApp, Venmo, Zell or through wire transfer services. By using these alternative services to pay, you are forfeiting any “buyer protection” that you would have had by using the Amazon payment platform and you are most likely sending your personal information and credit card information directly to the scammer. If you get scammed this way, there is very little chance of getting your money back and you will have to go through the arduous task of cleaning up the compromised account(s). The best way to prevent getting scammed this way, is to never pay for Amazon products with anything other than the Amazon payment platform … it’s just not worth it!
2. “Phishing Phone Calls”: Variations of this scam are used in the example scam mentioned at the beginning of this article. In this scam a person calls you pretending to be a representative of Amazon and requests personal information from you so you can verify your identity. This is a numbers game. If the scammers call 1,000 people a day, there is a high probability they will reach someone who is waiting on a call back from Amazon support, seeing Amazon Prime has around 220 million members. Once they have your account information, they can sell your information to other scammers or simply use your account to purchase products from Amazon … with your money or Amazon rewards points! The best way to protect yourself from these types of scams, is to develop a personal policy of never giving out personal information over the phone, especially if they are calling you and then requesting personal information.
The internet and services offered through the internet can be very convenient, but they have also become a breading ground for thieves and liars. People sitting behind screens can do things that they may never have considered doing if they had to face the people they are harming. Because of this, we all need to exercise great constraint and common-sense when giving out our personal information and accounts information. If you are not comfortable with what someone is asking you for, end the conversation.