Gift Card Scam
 

I received an email stating a large screen TV had been purchased by me. The email appeared authentic, as from Amazon, in every way. When I called the number listed, a person answered as “Amazon”. I was on the phone for a protracted period, trying to work with the guy to get the purchase cancelled. He tried several times to get me to allow remote access to my computer and I kept refusing to do so. Eventually, however, one of the fixes he proposed must have granted him access. He said Amazon wanted to refund the price of the TV and he wanted to add $400 to my checking account just as a verification amount, then he would add the remainder if the 400 went through. He admonished me to be very careful when entering the 400 on the line provided on the screen. I did so, but very quickly another zero and decimal and two zeros were added, appearing as $4000.00. He blamed me for the “error” and when I adamantly denied it, he said my computer was old. He sounded quite concerned and was anxious about how that excess money was going to revert back to him. He displayed an authentic-looking account ledger showing the deposit. He said Amazon did not allow him access to our credit card or bank account, that we needed to purchase gift cards at Best Buy and read the numbers on the back to him. He told me to leave my laptop on and he stayed on the phone with me while we drove to Best Buy. When we reached the parking lot, he said the clerk might ask why I was buying the cards since the amount was $2000.00 (the difference between the price of the TV and the $4000 supposedly in my account). He said I would need to tell her it was for my grandchildren, otherwise I would be charged tax on it. I said (repeatedly) that I would not lie. I would pay the tax. He kept insisting that saying it was for grandchildren wasn’t really a lie. Anyway, when I kept refusing to do as he asked, he became nasty, saying I was threatening him with the loss of his job. I told him I would be happy to send a check or give permission for Amazon to charge me for the overage, but he kept on. Finally, he said I would have a surprise when I got back home because he would wipe everything off my computer. He said, four letter words toward Donald Trump and Joe "Boodin.” And hung up. When we got home, sure enough, everything was wiped from my laptop.
I called our bank to see if they could in some way trace the deposit the caller said he made. It turned out that he never had any contact with the bank. No deposit was made, even though he was able to produce on the screen an authentic-appearing bank account page that showed the $4000 deposit. It turns out also that the caller had no contact with Amazon either. The entire situation was a fraud.

Sorry...one big paragraph! Many wont read it.

It is a well known scam.

Use a CC for Amazon purchases and you should be safe.

I personally greatly appreciate this warning! I believe many will take the time to read what you wrote and if they don't, then it's their loss. My mother was scammed twice... once for $22k and then, $5k.
I am 48 years old (will be moving to the Villages with my older husband when I retire in 5 years). This same thing happened to my husband and he was almost taken by it and I have received crazy emails appearing to be legitimate. The best advice is when an email is received that appears legitimate, do NOT hit reply to that email or call the number listed in that email. Instead, do a Google search and find the 1-800 number to the company (in this case Amazon) and go through them.
When people pray on the elderly, it is especially disgusting to me and I do hope that there is a Hell and a very special place there for vile scammers!
I am so glad that even though you were highly inconvenienced and your laptop was wiped clean, you did not lose your money
There was a program on television that I watched concerning the billion dollar industry of scamming.
Be careful everyone!!

OP, do not do anything to your computer. Take it to a reputable repair store and see if they can restore your files, you might get lucky.

I counted four red flags before you even got to the words "Gift Cards", that's worth ten red flags. Don't ever respond to any unsolicited emails no matter who they are from. Don't even click on the email itself or hit the 'unsubscribe' button. That's most likely a virus waiting to attack your computer.

It's your Amazon account, go to the Amazon website and look at your account, are there any purchases you didn't make? Probably not, problem solved, delete the email. It happens probably 10,000 times a day. If you want more backup, go to your credit card account and see if there are any charges you didn't make. In two minutes you found all the information you needed on your own, and you now have peace of mind and some crook doesn't have your information because you did it the right way.

Just because you see a logo, or some links, or words, doesn't make it real.

https://blog.goptg.com/hs-fs/hubfs/A...shing_scam.png

I work in computer security, dealing with scams just like these. We have ways to trace back the emails.

However when anyone calls, tell them you are driving and calm back later. Check the account personally. Companies never call like this. Another indication - listen carefully for an accent, indicating an overseas call.

Some of these people are extremely persuasive. It took me years to train my parents before they passed away to last the phone down and walk away.

Many of us were brought up in a kind, gentle, environment where we did not hang up on people. I taught my parents to tell these people that they needed to talk to the husband or the wife and just lay the phone down and walk away. They never were comfortable with just hanging up on them. Me? I forward the call to the psychic hotline!

That scam has been around for many years. Nothing new

You were gullible. Never get that far with suspected scammers. What were you thinking ?

Sad to say but people as gullible as this person just fuels the fire for these scammers. Seriously driving to Best Buy? I hope you learned from this incident. If these scammers didn't make the money they are after they wouldn't continue doing it.

Never become victim to these thieves who insist on straightening out your problems by accessing your computer. Just Hang up on them ! Call the company directly that you just were told you have a billing problem with and they will let you know if it’s true or not and if charges were billed to you. Make sure you write down the day, time and person you spoke with in case of further questions or problems. Also give the company the phone number and name, of the person who called you, so they can keep a record of these scam artists.

The original email was not "authentic in every way". Go look at it ... find the FROM email address. You will see immediately that it not an Amazon email address.

Sign up to view your credit card online. Check purchases/refunds daily and set it up to receive purchase notifications. Well worth it.

Didn't anyone tell you, there is nothing in life that is free.

It’s hard to believe people STILL fall for this.

I just had an email from Capital One saying that a purchase from Amazon for $125.83 was denied because Amazon was using a credit card number that is no longer valid. I was instructed to go to the Amazon site, link was provided, and put in the correct card number. Yep, that was a worthy delete! Never ends........

Many, if not most seniors are inherently honest and trustworthy......guess what? Times have changed. Any time I get an email that looks interesting I look at the link and the URL. You can usually tell if it's a scam because the link is generally long. It might have Amazon in there somewhere or IRS but 99% of the time they are false. Click on it and you perhaps opened the door to malware. I got one one day that apparently lock my screen up and told me to go to a site that would repair it............Big mistake. The assistant at Apple told me to simply turn the computer off and back on again and it will most likely go away......and don't go there again. People in foreign countries are making lots of $$$ on us trusting souls.

Delete all unrecognized emails. Never answer the phone when there is unknown caller ID. I had my email address stolen when I put an email in junk instead of deleting. It had a valid Microsoft logo. It took 4 hours to restore my account.

.

I'm sure some will post, how could you. Truth, REALITY, these people are artists.
You are distracted, have other issues and they gotcha. I found on the internet, US GOVERNMENT, FREE.............. I entered it as it was paperwork kind of thing that I wanted. Before anything starts they ask for your credit card. I ASSUMED, US government, postage???? So I gave it to them. They play video, which has no value.
They do not show it till the end, they billed my credit card about $100. It is not until the end that they give you a phone number. Oh you need to talk to xxxxx and she will call you back. Of course they never call back. Long story short, they offered to settle for $50.00 and I refused. Very good at this con. They implied this was the best offer I would get. I had printed everything. I contacted my credit card company sent them my file and the charge was dropped. I am either too old or too tired and have in the past done the David vs Goleith thing. I should have reported it to the attorney general but did not. My apologies to the next person they snag. We, I, enable them to continue.

Re: hijacking your computer
We are old school. We still use checks, do not bank on line. I have anti virus. It is a pain in the neck as it runs every morning. I have my computer backed up. If, they grab me, there is nothing worth them having. ENJOY IT.

The first mistake was clicking the link in the email. If a business or bank emails you, go directly to their site, without clicking the email link. If they have a real message to you, it will be there.......

Is there a phone number for Amazon?
 

Contacting Amazon online seems hard. Is there a phone number to call where Amazon actually answers in person?

These scams are diabolical!

Forward the email Psishing@amazon.com

Good point, just place your cursor over the sender’s email address and you will see the true originator trail.

Wow. Alot of critical replies here.

I for one appreciate the honesty - sharing what happened. Too often people are embarrassed, they hide the scam they fell for and it keeps happening to others.

Bravo for reminding us!

Never call or email these scammers. They will take your money. Ignore all of them.

I am amazed that people still fall for this type of scam. Contact your bank, not the so called business.

yeah, & it always happens around this time of year. i think i've come to expect it, lol

Definitely agree
 

I worked in the security field as well and this is good advice.

Your best defense is always to do your own research and call back to a number you can verify from your past dealings.

Also you will notice that scam emails do not contain your name. They are addressed generically. A legitimate email from a company will address you by name and may have a portion of your personal info like the last digits of your account number. It is still wise not to click on any links but go directly to the company’s website or known phone number.

possible fix
 

download and run unhide from major geeks, this may bring your data and files back, goodluck

Nothing in this life is Free.
 

Remember, Nothing in this is free.....If you receive text, email, call, letter, stating something you did not buy, or something is free, reward, gift... Stop immediately. If you want to verify if there is a problem, go directly to the organization's website (Amazon, Ebay, Social Security, etc). then you can determine if something is wrong or you are being scammed. Never click on the link in the digital document you received, unless you know it is authentic.

I have every credit card company I do business with notify me by text messaging and email for any purchase over $10. If I get a suspect email and don't get a text then something is wrong. We were recently in Sam's paid for our items via a Discover card and before we were out the door past the person who checks your receipt with the order Discover Card Services texted me that I had made a purchase for the dollar amount.

Duh, you should have realized it was a scam from jump street. Hope they didn’t actually “hurt” your computer or access any of your banking or credit card accounts. Keep a watchful eye.

I’m so sorry this happened to you. My mother was scammed last week and it has been a nightmare. A pop up came up while she was on her computer along with a loud warning that her computer had been hacked and to call “Microsoft”. She called the number and they also planted a tech viewer application on her computer and scammed her for $2000! I luckily was able to stop payment and we also closed all of her accounts and credit cards. They were on her computer for two hours and accessed her bank and other private data. They sounded so official because they were “from Microsoft.” I took her computer to Best Buy and had it wiped. Gee whiz what a mess! I told my mom never to pay anyone without running it by me first, and that she should never call any number like that. She learned a hard lesson.

Amazom scam
 

I got the same thing. You NEVER answer an email that says "amazon customer" or any other company. Paypal says never accept an email to you that doesn't include your full name.
Before you go any further on that email you should check Amazon, your orders. You'll see nothing.
Send email to Amazon spoof
delete

tl;dfr

Just my opinion but sorry, while I know people often get scammed I just don't believe this post. It's the very first post by someone who registered 2 years ago PLUS the "story" is just too obvious AND it's such an old scam. There are so many "first posts" from users on this forum who have signed up 2 - 6 years ago and never posted before and often never back again after the post. Almost sounds like something to generate posts for other reasons. I could be very wrong, but if so the poster REALLY is gullible.

If you look on youtube there are people whose whole pages are dedicated to mesing with scammers by calling them. Some even trace the where the scammer is calling from and erase there files. One even accessed the security cameras in the call center to see who was making the calls. Some of the videos are quite entertaining. You get to see how the scammers work.

I got a call from “lawyers Office” (no name) wanting to talk to me about my winnings! What winnings? I just hung up