Amazon Scam

[addicted]

Today received a call which when I answered it was a recording telling me that my Amazon Prime subscription was being renewed  for a further year and that £39.99 was being debited  from my account. Having been unwittingly signed up to this  on  a previous occasion ,  I was very annoyed and  took their offered option of pressing 1 to talk to a manager who would arrange for me to unsubscribe.  The person I spoke to said they would generate  a  form for  me to fill in to unsubscribe. After ending the call I looked at my account only to find that I  was not subscribed to Prime   at all a subsequent call  to Amazon  provided the information that the call was not from them and was a scam of some sort. but what sort, I can't think what they have  gained  from the call as I was not asked for any information and I didn't volunteer any other than I didn't want Prime and had unsuscribed from it. Unless by pressing 1 I have  clocked up a big charge on the phone bill. I will be contacting my land line provider on Monday to see if there is anything untoward going on there. I  have now received an  email from Amazon  confirming that they did not phone me and would never have done so.

 

 

Carole

[DAVIDH]

Could be the call charge or perhaps the "form" was to ask your log-in credentials?

[VetChugger]

Suspect you may well find that it was a premium number you accessed by pressing 1. Hope I'm wrong.

[Heron]

We also had this scam call this week, just hang up and take no action. I did a check on the phone number and it appeared to come from USA.

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

It will NEVER happen to me, we NEVER use Amazon, or Ebay, of any other of the on-line trendy shopping systems. Go to the shops to buy things, and keep people in work.

[RS2021]

10 minutes ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

It will NEVER happen to me, we NEVER use Amazon, or Ebay, of any other of the on-line trendy shopping systems. Go to the shops to buy things, and keep people in work.

The scam is aimed at those who don't use Amazon prime. 'it must be a mistake I don't have a subscription, please cancel it for me'. I've also heard of these scammers sometimes calling early in the morning at weekend. Hoping to catch someone still half asleep and not thinking fully.

[addicted]

1 hour ago, VetChugger said:

Suspect you may well find that it was a premium number you accessed by pressing 1. Hope I'm wrong.

That was my thought. I can't think of anything else that could afford them any gain as I didn't give any info' at all other than that I was  peed off at Amazon signing me up for Prime again. If that turns out to be the case I hope to head it off with a  call to my land line provider  on Monday.

 

 

Carole

[Paul]

3 hours ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

It will NEVER happen to me, we NEVER use Amazon, or Ebay, of any other of the on-line trendy shopping systems. Go to the shops to buy things, and keep people in work.

Which is all very well if you have shops local which sell the things you want to buy, and offer you a selection from which to choose which is about a common around here as rocking horse ****. The last genuine tool shop closed in Leicester nearly twenty years ago, well before the advent of Amazon, Ebay et al. If I want to buy a wood plane now, or a precision screwdriver I have the choice of going to B&Q, buying the usually one option they have available, if indeed they do have one, and if needed asking advice from a sales assistant with an O level in sociology and wouldn't know the difference between Oak and Balsa, or buying online from a specialist company with specialist knowledge which I can access, if needed, by calling them or dropping them an email. 

That said, I would never, ever use Amazon. A few months ago my email inbox filled up with order confirmations from Amazon for a range of different electronic goods. Earphones, Phablets, Smart watches, that sort of thing. When I logged into my account it showed three orders totalling over 190 items, 30 - 40 of each, all sold at a cost of 10p and paid for with an amazon gift card, which I never had. I contact them immediately, they said they would cancel the orders and that I should change my password. I did that, and added additional security requiring a pass code to be sent to my phone to access my account each time I try to log on. My phone received dozens of message that week with one time pass codes, I contacted Amazon again and again and all they said is that nobody had logged into my account since I had changed the password, though as the pass code is only generated after the correct password then obviously someone had hacked my account on their system and access the password again. They advised me to change the password again which I did.

Then, about a month later I started getting emails. "thank you for reviewing ear buds" or phablet, or smart watch. The whole thing had been a scam to generate false reviews for cheap Chinese goods. I spent an entire evening changing each and every one of them to read something very unbecoming of the item and the company selling them. Thankfully I do not have a stored payment card with amazon. I dread to think what might have happened if I had. The whole approach of Amazon was totally blase, they couldn't give a monkeys. I found it shocking that somebody could access me password so easily.

If ever you do shop on Amazon please don't believe the reviews, they are likely to be fake. 

 

[Wussername]

I have used Amazon for years. Never had a problem. Family use it all the time. Never had a problem. Surely an issue such as you have described would have been mentioned in the media before now with quite devastating repercussions for the company concerned. 

[YnysMon]

I had a call last week (an automated sounding voice) claiming to be our (unspecified) internet provider, saying that due to illegal (!) activity our line would be terminated in 24 to 36 hours unless I pressed 1 to speak to their executive.

Of course I just hung up. It’s just another example of spam calls designed to get you worried enough to respond.

I work on the principle that I can contact my ‘service provider’ separately, and not to respond to phone calls. 

 

[Smoggy]

I've known people that worked for amazon and as far as I'm concerned their vhf callsign is Go Away, fleabay I use through sheer convenience and laziness but I take the reviews with a huge pinch of salt.

BUT you have to compare any prices before buying as often normal shops are as cheap, don't get stung by lazyness!

[vanessan]

I had that automated message about amazon prime last week. I put the phone down straightaway as I do with all automated calls unless I either recognise the number or the caller - ie I get automated calls from my dentist re appointments. It’s all getting a bit silly now, so many jumping on the scam bandwagon. Sadly it’s teaching us not to trust anyone. ☹️

[Lulu]

My own rule is if I don’t recognise the number I let it ring. If its that important they will leave a message and then I will try and work out if its genuine.  I always google the number to see who called me. If there’s no information I still ignore the call. If googling shows up its either a scam or sales call, I block the number.   

[rightsaidfred]

Without wishing to be condescending there have been numerous warnings about responding to telephone calls and emails of this nature, as far as Amazon is concerned I have used them many times with no issues and the facility is there to sign up to or cancel Prime within the website or by email, as for reviews I don't take notice of them on any website there are fake reviews everywhere.

I hope you get this resolved without any loss to yourself but hopefully someone will learn from this and not respond to phone calls they are not expecting or will call the company back from a different phone.

Fred

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, rightsaidfred said:

Without wishing to be condescending there have been numerous warnings about responding to telephone calls and emails of this nature, as far as Amazon is concerned I have used them many times with no issues and the facility is there to sign up to or cancel Prime within the website or by email, as for reviews I don't take notice of them on any website there are fake reviews everywhere.

I hope you get this resolved without any loss to yourself but hopefully someone will learn from this and not respond to phone calls they are not expecting or will call the company back from a different phone.

Fred

One thing that is happening now is that scam calls are coming from what appear to be local numbers. Fred’s right in saying that there have been numerous warnings about these calls but they are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more difficult to identify. With regard to Amazon scams, I don’t think they are any different to the internet provider scams or indeed any others. Big companies are bound to be targeted. It’s up to all of us to be aware that it could happen at any time and the consumer has got to become as sophisticated as the scammer. Otherwise it’s   for all the technology!

[addicted]

I'm usually quite savvy  about these matters, however in my defence the call couldn't have come  at a better time for the scammer, that very morning I had received a  delivery from Amazon that was bound in "Prime" tape which made me wonder if they had put me back in it again without my knowledge. This was apparently an error on  their part and the tape shouldn't have been used. Apparently Amazon never phone clients  which I didn't know - I do now and won't be fooled again.

 

Carole

 

 

Carole

[addicted]

There is a good side to Amazon. My daughter after selling her estate Agency about 15 years ago set up an internet company she could run from home called luvponies .co that specialised in all manner of things from jewellery to bed linen that is horse/pony related for pony mad youngsters. She did vey well but after a few years realised that Amazon was a concept she couldn't compete with so this Christmas for the first time  she used them as a marketing agent.  Her business is up by 68% on last year  Last week we were supposed to go Christmas shopping together but instead on arriving we found her snowed under with orders and spent the day working with her to clear the backlog of orders that had built up during the short absence of 2 members of staff. She has had to come off Amazon temporarily until she catches up. Amazon is very strict with the Companies that use it in that if they don't keep the promises made they are immediately removed and never allowed back. This has to be good for us the customers.

 

 

Carole

[Bytheriver]

My favourite scam call on my landline was from someone claiming to be O2 offering me a better mobile package but they gave the game away by asking for my mobile number !

I hit the block button pronto. 

[Paul]

16 hours ago, Wussername said:

I have used Amazon for years. Never had a problem. Family use it all the time. Never had a problem. Surely an issue such as you have described would have been mentioned in the media before now with quite devastating repercussions for the company concerned. 

Perhaps you misread my post which was not hearsay, not a second or third hand account but something which happened to me. Perhaps you didn't misread the post and it was your intention to question my integrity. Just for clarity some of the order summaries are attached. If you use Amazon I would keep my eyes open 

 

[SteveO]

I am honestly thinking about getting rid of my land line. The only people who use it are scammers and I am wondering why I should pay for the privilege. It is much easier to block unwanted callers on the mobile.

 

[Wussername]

5 hours ago, addicted said:

I'm usually quite savvy  about these matters, however in my defence the call couldn't have come  at a better time for the scammer, that very morning I had received a  delivery from Amazon that was bound in "Prime" tape which made me wonder if they had put me back in it again without my knowledge. This was apparently an error on  their part and the tape shouldn't have been used. Apparently Amazon never phone clients  which I didn't know - I do now and won't be fooled again.

 

Carole

 

 

Carole

No harm done Carole to post your concern, in fact to the good. Thank you for bringing the matter to our attention. There is a generation out there whose vunlerability can and does change as they get older. Indeed can be seen on a daily basis. Confusion can also be recognised even by ourselves as being evident as part of our own individual behaviour.

Many of us, myself included, are part of that generation and so are those, our parents who are most at risk from those who consider our loved ones a suitable prey.

More should be done, more could be done, against those who consider their misguided behaviour acceptable with regard to the majority of our law abiding society.

 

[LizG]

Another problem is that people shopping on Amazon sometimes, especially in a hurry opt for the prime delivery because they want it quickly and then forget to unsubscribe.  I nearly had this situation back in the summer when I was in a hurry to order something but hadn't realised that the card I opted to use was no longer valid, so the sale went through (I still hadn't realised I had opted for prime) but then the sale got rejected.  As I was away when the rejection came through, I got my husband to re-order the item for me using standard delivery time and charges.  A few weeks later I got a notification saying my prime had been cancelled or something to that effect - I'm thinking I never used it but then it dawned on me that it was related to this failed purchase. 

A few people I know unwittingly opted for Prime (as I did), or forget to unsubscribe so when someone calls out of the blue - they are using people's vulnerability to make mistakes like this.

On this one, I wonder whether I could have been duped?  The only thing I would say is that one we have caller recognition on our landline and only answer calls from our home exchange, Horning or Norwich and I rarely answer a call on my mobile from an unknown number unless I am expecting a call..........

Liz

[Wussername]

32 minutes ago, Paul said:

Perhaps you misread my post which was not hearsay, not a second or third hand account but something which happened to me. Perhaps you didn't misread the post and it was your intention to question my integrity. Just for clarity some of the order summaries are attached. If you use Amazon I would keep my eyes open 

 

Why would I wish to question your integrity? What motive would I possibly have.

I do not know you. I have never met you. I do feel at this moment in time that I do not wish to meet you.

I am quite amazed at your cavalier attitude.

However, i would like to think on a wall , on a village green, on a mooring somewhere we would perhaps enjoy a civilised meeting over a pint or whatever and enjoy our mutual company without this anamosity.

Regards

Andrew

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, w-album said:

A few people I know unwittingly opted for Prime

Amazon have set it all up to deliberately catch the customer out, very cleverly done. I guess they then hope the customer forgets to unsubscribe or hasn’t realised what’s happened. They have done something similar with their checkout system in that, although you may have qualified for free delivery, you have to manually change the delivery details to ensure you don’t get charged. 

[Timbo]

Members unlucky enough to have to ring me up will know that I tend to answer the phone claiming to be a number of institutions and organisations from 'Gainsborough Morgue, you stab 'em we slab 'em' to 'Bentley Pit Bottom' or even 'Lady Ethel's Home for Fallen Women and Pantomime Dames'. If I don't recognise the number when the phone is ringing I will still pick up the call but my greeting is usually 'Thames Valley Fraud'. Quite a few unknown callers put the phone down at that point.

Calls that come through that start with a moments silence before the accident claim lawyer call centre operator comes onto the line are in for some fun. 
"According to our records you were the victim of an accident!"
"I knew it!"
"Was a vehicle involved in the accident sir?"
"Several, shall I tell you what happened?"
"Could you answer a few questions first sir?"
"of course."
If I get an eager one on the line I've even managed to describe the opening sequence of a random Bond Film before I get to tell them I'm Daniel Craig's stunt double.
"So your name's not really Bret Storm? You're wasting my time sir!"
"You rang me!"

As far as shopping on line goes, I've never had many problems. I always use PayPal where I can, I check each transaction form thoroughly just like I would do with any contract. I also double check the company I'm purchasing from through either eBay or Amazon. I've had some right bargains too. My table saw should have been £900 and I snapped it up at £300 brand new full warranty.

Don't ever, ever buy makeup or perfume online. Nine times out of ten it is fake or old stock. Although perfumes don't have a sell by date on them they do have a date or batch number that corresponds to a date at which point in time the fragrance will have oxidized and will no longer smell as the perfumer intended it to smell. Just before this date, unsold fragrance is withdrawn from the shop shelves and sold on to the online discounters.

eBay customers watch out next year as the PayPal contract with eBay ends and a Dutch company will be taking over the payment transactions. You will still be able to pay using PayPal, but PayPal will no longer be the default setting, you will have to hunt for the PayPal option to get the added security it provides.