Planning Briefs

If you receive an email update on an order from Amazon that you did not place, beware; it’s likely an attempt to steal your credit card information.

Unlike emails from Nigerian royalty and other obvious scams, this fraudulent email contains none of the telltale spelling or grammatical mistakes. It’s not yet filtered by Microsoft and spam protection software. It is a new and sophisticated financial fraud threat.

The fake Amazon Prime email order is billed to you but shipped to a strange name and address unfamiliar to you. A toll-free number is provided.

“Thank you for calling Amazon,” says the person who answers and gives you his name. ”How may I help you today.” (Listen to a fake Amazon rep)

This is where the sophistication of the fraudsters is most frightening. With the din of a call center in the background, the fake Amazon representative never asks you for your account password after you explain why you are calling.

Adding credibility, the fake rep tells you to check your email because he is sending you a one-time password. Even a skeptic now is likely to believe this is a real Amazon representative!

The fake Amazon rep is careful never to ask for your full credit card numbers but eventually connects you to another department to cancel the fake order. To be clear, the fake email and fake representative was all a setup. The final stage of the fraud is still yet to come.

To generate the one-time password, the fake Amazon rep simply used your email address to request a new password for your Amazon account. That generates an email to you, but makes it seem legitimately sent by the fake Amazon rep you are talking to.

In this case, the bad guys hung up the phone after questions about their location and verifying their identity, but it’s easy to see how many consumers could fall victim to this scam. 

Please let us know if you would like to receive alerts about online financial fraud. 

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