Amazon..."suspicious activity" scam?

[Jon Grider]

Lately I've been getting phone calls from different people saying they're from Amazon advising me of suspicious activity on my Amazon account and that my credit card was being charged varying amounts. I'm either to call back a number or push 1 on my phone to verify my purchase. I'm assuming this is an information phishing scheme? My online account shows no new orders. Anyone else experiencing these calls? Does Amazon actually call people?

[Thomas McCurnin]

No, I've never known Amazon to call anyone. My bet its a scam

[William Chain]

Scam scam scam.

[Ronald Blue]

Absolutely a scam. I don't answer any number that's not in my contact list. I don't even think there is a phone number connected to my Amazon account. I will have to look but it's guaranteed they wouldn't reach out to you by phone unless you initiate the contact. The scammers are working every angle these days.

[Jim Koepke]

There are more scams than stars in the sky going on right now.

One even got a bit nasty with me the other day for asking him not to call again.

My old SIT.file has been put to use a lot lately when the number on caller ID looks phony.

Couldn't find a way to upload the file here and Google looks like there are a lot of information on the tone but after checking a few, this one has downloadable files > https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/recordedannouncements.html < They are longer than the file on my computer.

Click on the file and on the left end of the player there are some dots. Clicking on those gives the option to download the file.

My file only has the tones of a disconnected number. It plays through QuickTime and my usual routine is to have it at the ready in the lower corner of my screen:

447398

It is usually behind any other programs. A quick click and a tap on the space bar is all it takes while holding the phone next to my speakers.

For a while it tends to drop the number of robocalls.

jtk

[Stan Calow]

scam. And I'm getting emails saying the same thing. And they dont even have my phone number or email in my account info.

Think about it. How would Amazon know what my card was being charged? -they can't be monitoring my bank cards. Unless they themselves were charging it, and then they should already know they were the problem.

[Mike Henderson]

I have an iPhone app for each of my credit cards and in the few times that I've had suspicious activity they always sent me a message through the app, or a text, alerting me to the charge and asking me if I made it. I don't think I ever received a phone call about those activities.

Mike

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have received the calls, didn't provide any personal information of any kind, hung up, went online and checked my Amazon account which showed absolutely no current activity. It's a scam.

[Lee Schierer]

I was getting the same messages. I checked the incoming numbers and the number they wanted me to call. The were always from different area codes hundreds or thousands of miles apart. I reported the calls and numbers to Amazon. There have been no charges to my cards.

[Jerome Stanek]

Big time scam I get those calls and I don't have an Amazon account

[Doug Dawson]

The only times Amazon has ever called me is when I’ve asked them to. It’s unbelievably hard to even get them to do _that_.

They certainly have better things to do with their time. :^)

[Gordon Dale]

My 93 year old mother-in-law was taken in by this. (She doesn't even have an Amazon account; my wife has things sent to her from our Amazon account, hence her confusion.) Someone claiming to be from Amazon called on her house phone and asked her to open her computer while they had her on the line. They were in the process of gaining access to her hard drive when my wife just happened to call her cell phone and interrupt things. We had to freeze her bank accounts, have her computer scrubbed (yes, malware had been installed) and it was a huge hassle all around, made more challenging by the pandemic. And they keep calling. And calling. And calling. It's appalling.

[Jim Becker]

110% scam. Do not call. Do not give them any information. You can easily check the status of your account(s) by logging onto both Amazon and your credit card provider(s)'s sites in the normal fashion (not via any link in those emails) and verify things are fine.

[Jim Matthews]

They're combing voter records for people over 50.

Anyone receiving these calls under 50?

[Jon Grider]

Thanks all for reaffirming my thoughts.

[Myk Rian]

Just Google the phone number and see what you find out.

[Jim Becker]

They're combing voter records for people over 50.

Anyone receiving these calls under 50?

They are most often randomly dialed numbers at this point...and yes, my 25 yo daughter gets them.

[Jim Becker]

Just Google the phone number and see what you find out.

Spoofed caller ID in many cases, but sometimes the number will show up that way.

[Bob Coates]

One thing that I have done with all my credit cards is to check the box to email/text me when any amount over $x dollars. That way I know right away how much wife is spending. Bad part I check box say to notify when purchase is made without card, she got that one.:(

[Paul Saffold]

I got an email from Chase Amazon card wanting me to verify a purchase of about $94 for food. I looked at my statement online. There were 2 other online orders for food the day before. Total was about $250 for all 3. They cancelled my card and will mail me a new one. 3 to 5 days maybe, but with the Christmas mail we'll see if I get it this year.

I'm 71 and this is the first time for me. Glad they caught it. And no they did not call me.

[Ronald Blue]

I got an email from Chase Amazon card wanting me to verify a purchase of about $94 for food. I looked at my statement online. There were 2 other online orders for food the day before. Total was about $250 for all 3. They cancelled my card and will mail me a new one. 3 to 5 days maybe, but with the Christmas mail we'll see if I get it this year.

I'm 71 and this is the first time for me. Glad they caught it. And no they did not call me.

Only have a Discover card but several times they have sent a text message saying there was suspicious activity and blocked a charge. In all the instances they were legitimate charges and once I replied they let it go through. That is reassuring to know that the system flags unusual purchases for verification.

[Ronald Blue]

Spoofed caller ID in many cases, but sometimes the number will show up that way.

Absolutely! Don't ever trust the caller ID these days. They use the same area code and sometimes prefix to make you think it might be legit. My work phone is Chicago area code and the spammers are always calling with the same area code. Anyone trying to reach me that knows me will leave me a voice mail or they are in my contact list.

[Curt Harms]

We get the occasional "your Apple/Amazon/whatever" account has suspicious activity ....... call. NoMoRobo is a big help on the land line, they offer a service for cell phones as well but I just send unknown cell calls to voice mail. My Chase card did get hacked and I was surprised it was caught before the purchase went through. It was for $64 so nothing unusual there but it was from puma.com and I doubt I fit the usual Puma purchaser profile, or perhaps there were a whole bunch of puma.com purchases at the same time. I got an email saying "Did you make this purchase?" Anyway the order was never shipped so nobody lost money. It's a shame Puma couldn't ship a shoe box with a skunk spray mechanism in it.

[Jon Grider]

I received a call from fellow that said he had just received a spam call and that his caller ID said the call came from my land line. They must have a way of using other peoples numbers to do their dirty work.

[Jim Becker]

I received a call from fellow that said he had just received a spam call and that his caller ID said the call came from my land line. They must have a way of using other peoples numbers to do their dirty work.
Jon, I've mentioned this before in other threads but it may have been missed...the CID information they use is "spoofed" and often randomized within a "local" area code and even local exchange. A very meaningful percentage of these calls originate in other parts of the world and transit the Internet, too. They "look" local, but they are not locally originating calls. This is also why services like NoMoRobo are ineffective on them...the randomization, even if it's not a "local" number. Until the carriers universally put in place new technologies that look deeper into the calls to get behind the spoofing (most have only done minimal implementation of that technology to-date and it must be ubiquitous to work), these calls will continue. I just ignore most calls from numbers I don't recognize at this point. If it's someone important, they will leave a voice mail and I can return the call immediately.

[Jon Grider]

Jon, I've mentioned this before in other threads but it may have been missed...the CID information they use is "spoofed" and often randomized within a "local" area code and even local exchange. A very meaningful percentage of these calls originate in other parts of the world and transit the Internet, too. They "look" local, but they are not locally originating calls. This is also why services like NoMoRobo are ineffective on them...the randomization, even if it's not a "local" number. Until the carriers universally put in place new technologies that look deeper into the calls to get behind the spoofing (most have only done minimal implementation of that technology to-date and it must be ubiquitous to work), these calls will continue. I just ignore most calls from numbers I don't recognize at this point. If it's someone important, they will leave a voice mail and I can return the call immediately.

Thanks for the info, Jim. I guess I did miss it in other threads. I find myself answering the phone more often lately with retirement and the Covid restrictions meaning less outside contact with the world. Good advice on just letting the voice mail intercept the calls, although I do amuse myself sometimes by playing along and trying to waste the spammers time. Wow, I must be bored.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Got the Amazon one this week, along with Direct TV call. Simple thing to do is let it go to voice mail. Then note that call back numbers aren't the same as customer service number you have. Most of my "calls" leave a call back number that is in the 755 area code. Every business I deal with has an 800 number customer service number.

[Jim Becker]

Every business I deal with has an 800 number customer service number.

It's good you bring that up. I honestly wonder just how much longer that corporations will even continue to pay for so-called "toll free" numbers simply because the percentage of folks who actually pay for phone calls in the sense of "long distance" and "message rates" has been quickly passing. Most US carrier wireless contracts have unlimited voice calling (some even include adjacent countries...Canada and Mexico, etc) and many so-called land-lines also have the same at this point. Historically, maintaining a toll-free 8xx number has been an expensive proposition. The primary benefit of such numbers at this point isn't no-cost for the caller...it's just a more visibly identifiable number to call for customer service, etc.

[Myk Rian]

There are more scams than stars in the sky going on right now.

One even got a bit nasty with me the other day for asking him not to call again.

My old SIT.file has been put to use a lot lately when the number on caller ID looks phony.

Couldn't find a way to upload the file here and Google looks like there are a lot of information on the tone but after checking a few, this one has downloadable files > https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/recordedannouncements.html < They are longer than the file on my computer.

Click on the file and on the left end of the player there are some dots. Clicking on those gives the option to download the file.

My file only has the tones of a disconnected number. It plays through QuickTime and my usual routine is to have it at the ready in the lower corner of my screen:
jtk

Thank you, Jim.
I've been wanting to put a tone or 2 on my cell voicemail for a long time, but couldn't remember what they were called, or the tones used.
A very quick burst of the tones at the beginning of your greeting is all it takes for it to be read as disconnected, etc.