Scammers Posing As Amazon How To Protect Yourself

Maurie Backman  Wed, January 8, 2025  Moneywise

American woman lost her life savings to scammers posing as Amazon. Here’s how the scam works and how to protect yourself

When a Knoxville, Tennessee woman named Colleen saw a duplicate charge on her credit card for an Amazon purchase, she attempted to contact the merchant to resolve the issue. But instead of getting in touch with Amazon, she wound up contacting a scammer by accident.

Her mistake was innocent enough. Rather than go to Amazon's website and use their channels to connect with someone from customer service, Colleen did an internet search for a customer service phone number.

The problem? She didn't reach Amazon. Instead, she reached someone who would ultimately rob her of her life savings.

When a simple mistake has far-reaching consequences

When Colleen got on the phone with "customer service" at Amazon, the agent she spoke to led her to believe that her account was compromised. She was then transferred to a man who identified himself as Agent John Davis from the Federal Trade Commission.

He sent Colleen his fake credentials and she received what looked like an official FTC letter stating that her Social Security number was associated with fraud and her bank account could be drained at any time. Naturally, she panicked.

Colleen was instructed to withdraw $19,000 from her savings in cash. She was then told to go to a tobacco and vape shop and create an account on its Bitcoin ATM. She was sent a bar code to scan, which allowed her to deposit $15,000.

She then went to two apparel stores, as instructed, and purchased $4,000 in gift cards before giving the cards' numbers to Davis. Davis sent her a "receipt" for her $19,000 and said she'd get her money back after the FTC did its investigation. She was also told to keep the details of the situation to herself. Now, members of Colleen's church are helping her out while she works through the aftermath.

How to avoid falling victim to a scam

The sad thing about Colleen's situation is that she's the one who made the call to "Amazon," so she thought she was in the clear. But any time you need to contact a merchant, your best bet is to go to the company's site directly and get its phone number or email — don't just do a Google search.

Often, though, scammers like the ones Colleen encountered target victims by reaching out to them directly. And there’s also been an uptick in Amazon scams in particular.

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