Amazon..."suspicious activity" scam?

[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/porti...uncements.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.