Good advice from Amazon this morning

Technology
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Hello Toni Ertl,

Stay safe from scammers this holiday season by getting to know their most common scams:

  • Order Confirmation Scams. These are unexpected calls/texts/emails that often refer to an unauthorised purchase and ask you to act urgently to confirm or cancel the purchase. These scammers try to convince you to provide payment or bank account information, install software to your computer/device, or purchase gift cards. Remember , if you received correspondence regarding an order you weren’t expecting, you can verify orders by logging into your Amazon account. Only legitimate purchases will appear in your order history - and Customer Service is available 24/7 to assist.

  • Tech Support Scams. Scammers create fake websites claiming to provide tech support for your devices and Amazon services. Customers who land on these pages are lured to contact the scammer and fall prey to their schemes.

Remember , go directly to the help section of our website when seeking help with Amazon devices or services. If you do use a search engine, use caution. Legitimate Amazon websites contain “amazon.com” such as “amazon.com/support”.

Here are some important tips so that you can identify scams and keep your account and information safe:

  1. Trust Amazon-owned channels . Always go through the Amazon mobile app or website when seeking customer service, tech support, or when looking to make changes to your account.
  2. Be wary of false urgency. Scammers may try to create a sense of urgency to persuade you to do what they’re asking. Be wary any time someone tries to convince you that you must act now.
  3. Never pay over the phone. Amazon will never ask you to provide payment information, including gift cards (or “verification cards”, as some scammers call them) for products or services over the phone.

For more information on how to stay safe online, visit Security & Privacy on the Amazon Customer Service page.

Sincerely,
Amazon

Since many are likely ordering from Amazon at this time of year it’s good to be reminded of this stuff.

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A good rule of thumb is to have the apps for Amazon, PayPay, eBay etc.

If you receive an email or sms purporting to be from any of these, or others, La Poste being popular at the moment. Close the email/sms without clicking on anything in it. Go to the app on your own device and check for notifications or charges.

My husband doesn’t like apps, so I verify his puzzling messages using His internet browser, going to the homepage of Amazon or whatever, signing in to his account and there I check.

Basically, never click on anything in an email or sms without checking independently.
:nerd_face:

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This is a year old video but still relevant today.
In another topic, I suggested that you you call your bank (or whatever) from another phone or device than the one you suspect was being used to attempt to scam you. Here’s the reason why…

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I haven’t looked at this, but as an ex telecoms design and development engineer (amongst other things) I think I know exactly how this scam works. I also know that it wouldn’t work in France. In the UK, the call originator ‘holds’ the telephone line. What this means is if the originator of the call doesn’t drop the line, the line stays open, even if you yourself put the phone down. In France, it’s different. If you, as the call answerer put the phone down, the connection is terminated, no matter what the caller does. It’s a very clever technique, but not new.

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Correct. It’s origins lie back in the 1940’s.

You might like to see some of the old BT references outlined for a trip down memory lane then - you can almost smell the mustiness of the reference manual :wink:
The video specifically references the UK and BT (as well as the US). I posted it because there are some SF’ers who remain in UK and the States who could fall victim to this.
Knowledge is power!
Don’t get scammed!

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