Scammers posing as Amazon employees as ‘Prime Day’ approaches
The BBB says the caller claims there's a problem with your account to gain access to personal information
(ABC NEWS) —- As Amazon Prime Day and Target Deal Day approach, the Better Business Bureau is out with a new warning about scammers aiming to steal your personal information.
In a new scam alert released Thursday, the BBB said that con artists are posing as Amazon employees and calling people, claiming to need information about their account.
According to the BBB, the caller will say there’s a problem with your account, or a similar story to that degree, like a failed credit card payment or a lost package. They will then ask you for your credit card and account details to access your personal information. They may also request remote access to your computer to “help” solve the problem.
In response to recent scams, Amazon has released a statement on their website about suspicious correspondence and said that the company would “never ask for personal information.”
In the message Amazon reminds customers to be weary of anyone trying to obtain personal information over the phone saying,
“Amazon will never send you an unsolicited message that asks you to provide sensitive personal information,” the company wrote on their website. “Amazon will never ask you to make a payment outside of our website and will never ask you for remote access to your device.”
The company pointed out that some of the scams have also come in the form of e-mails and text messages that contain links to websites that look like they may be from Amazon.com, but aren’t, along with an order confirmation for an item you didn’t purchase or an attachment to an order confirmation, requests to update payment information and even attachments to install software on your device.
But it’s not only Amazon that scammers are posing as.
The callers sometimes show up as legitimate numbers from the BBB and other organizations, according to the BBB.
To help crack down on these scams, Amazon is urging customers to report any suspicious correspondence.
They’ve also teamed up with BBB to help consumers catch scams. If you feel you may have fallen victim to a scam, always file a report at the following link.
