Urgent warning about Amazon phone scam after users tricked into handing over $4,000

FAKE Amazon phone calls are baiting unsuspecting customers to share personal information to collect sham refunds and take them for “thousands of dollars.“

Cops have warned of the con, which involves a caller claiming to be a legitimate Amazon representative and query the customer about their recent purchases. 

AFPFraudulent Amazon calls are conning customers to get them to share personal information for sham refunds[/caption]

AlamyPeople who get suckered end up getting duped for thousands of dollars[/caption]

AMAZON REFUND SCAM RISING

After rattling off the list, the customer is likely to deny the purchase. 

That’s when the fraud Amazon representative then presses for the person to supply a debit or credit card number so that the purchase can be refunded and deleted.  

In the past three weeks the police in Ohio are reporting seeing a spike in complaints from unsuspecting victims falling prey to this exact Amazon refund scam.

Last Friday, a Huron County resident was dubbed out of $4,000 by the scam, Sheriff Kelly Hanson said, according to WNEM.

“That was on top of the several other thousands of dollars that other residents have recently lost because of this same scam,” Hanson added. 

SHERIFF: DON’T SHARE SECRETS

Kelly is now warning his local community to be vigilant whenever Amazon comes calling or sends an email seeking to retrieve critical passwords and access to various accounts.

“Any customer that receives a questionable email, call or text from a person impersonating an Amazon employee should report them to Amazon customer service,” an Amazon spokesman told The Sun.

“Amazon investigates these complaints and will take action, if warranted.”

The company stresses that these phone scammers are not targeting Amazon customers.

The company suggests it’s a “robocall scheme” where they ring many phone numbers to try to find someone who might be convinced to share critical passwords.

But the company maintains it won’t ever reach out to a customer for any sort of payment or financial information.

AMAZON’S RED FLAG LIST

The e-commerce corporation offers some pointers to insulate its users from getting hosed.

Highest on the red flag list Amazon never pushes fto receive or confirm sensitive personal information or wouldn’t offer surprise refunds.

“While some departments at Amazon will make outbound calls to customers, Amazon will never ask you to disclose or verify sensitive personal information, or offer you a refund you do not expect,” according to its website.

Amazon encourages anyone who feels they may be the victim of a scam of this nature to contact them to let them know about it and also report the suspicious activity to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The company also urges its customers to be leery of a variety of red flags.

Any links that may appear to be Amazon.com but aren’t the real deal, especially since the company won’t send emails with links to an IP address.

This is considered a scam known as phishing.

Any order confirmation about something you didn’t purchase or an attachment to an order confirmation.

If the order doesn’t match up then it isn’t from Amazon.

Any requests to update payment information or prompts to install new software on your devices should be met with suspicion.

The company also prides itself on being free of grammatical errors.

MALICIOUS MAKE-BELIEVE

Scammers have seized on the ubiquitousness of Amazon in Americans’ everyday online shopping lives. 

The spokesman noted that they’re also working overtime to sucker consumers who may have their guard down or pursuing deals and buying more as the holiday season nears.

The hallmarks of the refund scam aren’t far off from last year’s bogus robo calls. 

Last year, people were getting robo calls claiming to be from Amazon. 

The recorded message would inform the person “there’s something wrong with your account,” according to the FTC.  

“It could be a suspicious purchase, a lost package, or an order they can’t fulfill.”

The scam would coax the person to “press 1” or “give you a phone number to call.”

The FTC warned at the time: “Don’t do either. It’s a scam. 

“They’re trying to steal your personal information, like your account password or your credit card number.”