Big Fraud Can Come in Small Packages – Watch out for Amazon Employee Scams!

Who doesn’t love a little bit of Amazon in their lives, right?

I mean, when it comes to ordering online, aside from mayyyybe Ali Express and e-bay, we all know that Amazon is the natural go-to – the trusty Internet shop in the sky – with trust being the operative word here, especially since Covid. However, it’s important to know that one-third of business-impostor fraud complaints involve online scammers pretending they work for Amazon.

Wait, I’ll repeat that, just in case you missed it – ONE THIRD (!!!) of business imposter fraud complaints involve online scammers pretending they work for Amazon.

That’s massive.

You might also be interested to know that last year alone, fraudsters pretending to be Amazon employees stole 27 million from unsuspecting (not to mention trusting) consumers.

Think you’d never fall for this? Think again. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that:

“Older adults are four times more likely to lose money and get hit harder — losing a median of $1,500, versus $814 for younger adults — in such scams. Why? Because Amazon is the biggest, best-known company in the online sales space,” which makes it so credible, few would question it.

These scams are so rampant that even the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning the public about them.

Just to put things into perspective:

“About 96,000 people reported being targeted in such “business impersonator” scams involving fake Amazon employees over that time. That’s a fivefold increase and made the company a “runaway favorite” for criminals.” Reported the FTC.

Here’s how the scam works:

The phone rings. You answer and hear a recorded message claiming to be from Amazon. It tells you that there is an issue with your Amazon account. Sometimes, you’ll hear that there’s been a fraudulent charge on your Prime card, a package got lost in delivery, or something you ordered was sent to the wrong address.

Whatever the reason given in the recording, the scammers have the same goal: getting access to your personal information. You’ll either be asked directly to provide your credit card and account login details or, to enable remote access to your computer or phone in order to ‘help’ solve the issue.

These scammers don’t just stop there though. They have even been known to go as far as to spoof other organizations’ phone numbers in order to help disguise their calls and lend them credibility – including BBB’s number.

Wowza.

Here’s a quick list of things you can expect to hear from your average Amazon scammer:

There has been suspicious activity or unauthorized purchases on your Amazon account. The scammer asks you for access to your computer or phone to “fix” the problem and to provide a refund. Suddenly, the scammer accidently pays too large a refund and asks you to return the difference. These criminals have even been known to go as far as to beg for help, saying they’ll be fired if they don’t get the money back. (The devil is in the details).
They want to sell you gift cards. Scammers will try to sell you gift cards and ask you to send pictures of the numbers on the back; explaining that sharing the numbers (sometimes called “blocking codes” or “security codes”) can stop hackers who supposedly pirated the customer’s account. However, supplying the numbers lets scammers steal the card’s value. Uh, huh.
You’ve won a raffle! Scammers send you a text message claiming it’s your lucky day – you’ve won a raffle for a free Amazon product. However, they also ask you for your credit card information to pay for shipping. Don’t do it!

So, how can you protect yourself?

Top five tips to protecting yourself from becoming a Fake Amazon Employee scam victim:

Be suspicious of unexpected emails and calls. While its true that there are departments at Amazon that will call customers, as a rule, Amazon will NEVER ask you to disclose or verify sensitive personal information. They’ll also never ask you to make a payment outside of their website or for remote access to your device.
Delete unsolicited messages requesting personal information. Amazon will never ask you to supply sensitive personal information, such as your tax ID, bank account number or credit card information.
Ignore calls for immediate action. Scammers will try to get you to divulge information by creating a sense of urgency. If you get a call from someone that says they need something from you quickly – don’t give any information away!
Beware of requests to pay via wire transfer, prepaid debit card or CashApp (such as MoneyPak, iTunes or similar cards). These are almost always a sign of fraud.
Report, report, report it to Amazon. Any customer that receives a questionable email or call from a person impersonating an Amazon employee should report them to Amazon customer service. Amazon investigates these complaints and will takes action, if warranted.

In a nutshell

If you get a call, a text, email and/or a social media message about suspicious account activity, raffles, or unauthorized purchases… IGNORE it! And if you think you may have a real account problem, just contact Amazon customer support at 888-280-4331 to check it out.

It’s safe to say that cyberattacks are no longer just a threat to enterprises. You, me and literally, the cat’s mother are now sitting targets. It is our collective duty, as consumers, to help win the war against consumer cybercrimes by staying up to date on what’s happening and making it our business to gain the tools to prevent those scams, before they take off globally, and millions are lost.

That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves as experts in the cyber security field to keep you, our readers, aware of every scam, as it happens, so that together – we can help slay the cyber scammers and save a whole lot of green, in the process.

If you want to know more about other trending consumer scams, check out our and stay tuned and watch this space for more vital info on the latest developing cyber scams!