Amazon SCAM Alert! ***WARNING***

There has been a measurable rise in scams, phishing attempts, and identity theft in the recent days and weeks. This might be attributed to events unfolding on the international stage; but whatever the cause, we should try to increase our awareness of scams and schemes targeting our personal information.

It appears that the version of identity theft attempt currently being reported most often is the “Amazon” scam, in which a caller tells the victim that they are a representative of Amazon. The fraudulent “Amazon” rep then advises the victim that there is a pending transaction on the account, usually for a relatively large sum of money (e.g. “Someone is attempting to purchase a MacBook Pro and two iPhones using this account, and we want to confirm your identity before we authorize this $2400 transaction”).
The fraudulent “Amazon” rep will then begin asking questions about personal identifying information such as Social Security numbers, Banking Information, Full Name, DOB, etc.

THESE CALLS ARE SCAMS.

Make no mistake, the individual calling you is a criminal and is attempting to steal your identity for criminal purposes. Do not disclose any information.

The following is directly from Amazon’s official website on the matter: “While some departments at Amazon will make outbound calls to customers, Amazon will never ask you to disclose or verify sensitive personal information”
The simplest course of action if you receive one of these scam calls, is to simply hang up the phone. Do not disclose any of your information.

Amazon’s official website provides information on how to discern actual Amazon communications from fraudulent activity.

If you have previously received a similar call, and you did disclose personal information, you can report it to Amazon.

If you believe that your identity has been criminally compromised, you may want to seriously consider taking the following actions:
- Contact your local law enforcement agency and report the incident
- Take steps to report the fraud to the actual company/retailer/financial institution (e.g. in this example, Amazon).
- Take steps to secure your credit bureau account (place a fraud alert with Experian, Trans-Union, Equifax).
- Consider changing the passwords to the affected accounts (e.g. in this example, your Amazon account).
- Review the information on the official IRS website for victims of identity theft:

This is only one example of a myriad of different variations on this same method of attempted fraud / identity theft. Continue to stay vigilant and always take steps to protect yourself and your personal data at all times.

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