Amazon Scam

There is a scam going around where you will receive an e-mail from the address of someone you know saying their Amazon account is having issues and would you please send a gift card on their behalf. DON’T DO IT. I was fooled because the e-mail address was correct (and from a neighbor in the building) and the story was believable but Amazon caught it and cancelled the order after speaking with me. So beware!

4 thoughts on “Amazon Scam”

  1. There is another variant of this scam. I was asked if I had Amazon prime and if I did can I buy something for him. The email said it was from my brother in law. Rather than responding, I called him. Needless to say the email was not from him.

  2. This is why group emails from our management company arriving as a single, transparent, non-BCCed list is an issue – it forever links us to each other as vectors of attack. If one of our email accounts gets compromised, the entire list is at risk. It only takes one email sent with the addresses in the clear; we’re more susceptible than average forever, now.

    Emails being sent this way seems to have stopped as a regular practice at least; call this a teachable moment.

    1. Heh actually the last email sent with emails in the clear was in January so “stopped” may be premature.

      Probably worth bringing up with Cathy, just to make sure.

  3. Another related scam currently all the rage in the UK: You get a message that a trivial amount of postage is due on a package you’re receiving. Once they get your payment info, they pose as your bank saying that the first contact was indeed a scam, and they “helpfully” offer to cut your accounts over to keep them all safe–which basically enables them to empty them all out completely. Hasn’t shown up here, but I’ll bet you it’s coming. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-56500599

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