Anyone got scammed on Amazon recently?

3 points

10 years ago

I made an order for a $3.00 item and was going to pay from some gift card credit that I had. The credit should've been over $50, but when I tried to pay, the balance was only 93 cents. When I looked at my past orders, there was a recent order, within the last hour, which charged all of my balance, and then had a shipping address in Florida. Mostly kids toys items in the order. I live in California and don't know anyone in Florida, and the name in the address was unfamiliar to me. I should have copied everything, but the first thing I did was to cancel the order. After that, I couldn't see any of the details of the order. I contacted amazon through their chat client and gave them the details. Then I noticed an incredible amount of spam in my email inbox, the email linked to my amazon account. The spam was mostly emails asking me to activate my account with some website which I never heard of, and it used some sign-up name that looked like it was Russian. Buried in all of that spam was a couple of emails from Amazon, confirming the fraudulent purchase that someone made. I was incredibly lucky to have come across this fraudulent purchase when I did, and was able to stop it.

So I'm wondering if anyone else has had that experience and also wondering how someone could've made a purchase with my account. I'm thinking it had something to do with my web browser; my amazon passwords are saved in my chrome browser, but I also realize that security on the web and browsers is not great.

Here's a transcript of my chat with the Amazon rep:

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Hello, Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:

Initial Question: I noticed an order on my account's credit balance which emptied the balance. I didn't make the order, and it was being shipped to some strange address that I'm not familiar with. Need some help for this issue.

10:04 PM PDT Tovseef(Amazon): Hello, my name is Tovseef. I'm here to help you today.

10:05 PM PDT ME: Hi Tovseef

10:06 PM PDT Tovseef: May I have the order number ?

10:07 PM PDT ME: ORDER # XXXXXXXXXXX I cancelled it as soon as I saw this.

10:07 PM PDT Tovseef: Thanks for sharing the order number . let me check it

10:09 PM PDT Tovseef: I can see the order was cancelled and you have not been charged

10:10 PM PDT ME: I'm concerned that someone was able to charge my account for an order that I didn't make.

10:11 PM PDT Tovseef: Are you referring to the same order?

10:11 PM PDT ME: The order that I cancelled.

10:12 PM PDT Tovseef: Okay I can confirm you that your account information is safe and secure

10:13 PM PDT ME: Then how did my account get charged with a strange order that was being delivered to Florida?

10:13 PM PDT Tovseef: I will also forward your issue to the account specialist team they will check this out and will notify you via email

10:13 PM PDT ME: Yes, please get someone to look into this.

10:14 PM PDT Tovseef: Allow me few minutes while I will forward your issue to the account specialty team

10:14 PM PDT ME: This looks like an issue for some security team.

10:16 PM PDT Tovseef: May I have your phone number ?

10:17 PM PDT ME: Best way to reach me is through email. My home phone number is XXXXXXX

10:20 PM PDT Tovseef: Thanks I have forwarded your issue to the account specialty team They will get beck to you in 12-48 hours

10:21 PM PDT ME: ok, thanks.

10:22 PM PDT Tovseef: You are welcome Is there anything else I can assist you with today?