topic Re: Amazon account compromised in Community Chat

Amazon account compromised

lulu2 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:15:59 GMT

Yesterday I received an email from Amazon confirming an order I'd placed. I knew I had not placed any order so went to my Amazon account and sure enough, I had purchased an item and was having it sent to a third party. There for my viewing was the name, address and telephone number receiving the item. The purchased was made using almost $2500 of Cash Back rewards from Discover.

I could still cancel the order. (which I did) I changed my password and removed my payment methods. I contacted Amazon as well as Discover.

Today I received a call from Amazon Fraud department. The person insisted someone had accessed my credit card account elsewhere. I believe they accessed my Amazon account. If you use Discover with Amazon, when it comes time to pay, they ask if you'd like to use your Cash Back Rewards. My password is unique to Amazon. I believe someone associated with Amazon used my account.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Re: Amazon account compromised

brii — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:18:17 GMT

Omgosh. That is terrible.

Re: Amazon account compromised

Lipstickdiva — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:19:48 GMT

Holy cow!

Re: Amazon account compromised

croemer — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:21:12 GMT

Yikes...scary.

Re: Amazon account compromised

terrier3 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:22:48 GMT

I had something even weirder happen to me.

I received a portable heater and some kind of tool at my address and with my name...but they didn't use my Amazon account.

Re: Amazon account compromised

VioletEyes — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:26:27 GMT

I hope you are able to get this straightened out. I know how upsetting it is.

Re: Amazon account compromised

lovescats — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 17:33:09 GMT

That's awful. Have you contacted Discover? What did they tell you.

Re: Amazon account compromised

lulu2 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 18:38:06 GMT

Thank you for your responses.

I had no problem cancelling the order and credit card. (and restoring my Cash back rewards) Even if I had not caught the order when it was early enough to cancel, Discover assured me I had ZERO responsibility.

My real problem was the guy from Amazon who simply would not accept the possibility that it was not my credit card that had been compromised rather the Amazon account. The fact that my Amazon account had a unique password and (as far as I know) Amazon is the only account I have that asks if I want to use my Cash Back Rewards.

The third party's name, address and telephone number was removed from my account and I was told, if I'd kept a copy of it, do not try to contact that person. He also wanted to know if I'd given that information to Discover. When I said yes, he said "OH".

Re: Amazon account compromised

brii — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 18:41:17 GMT

On 1/23/2015 lulu2 said:

The third party's name, address and telephone number was removed from my account and I was told, if I'd kept a copy of it, do not try to contact that person. He also wanted to know if I'd given that information to Discover. When I said yes, he said "OH".

That's interesting...

Re: Amazon account compromised

JustJazzmom — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:38:22 GMT

I guess we need to remove default CCs with Amazon (again!)

Re: Amazon account compromised

Clover29 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:51:50 GMT

I'm surprised you were able to get into your account to change your password, after being hacked. When my hotmail account was hacked, the first thing the hacker did was to change the password to block me out.

Sorry to hear this happened to you. It's a horrible feeling of violation.

Re: Amazon account compromised

KYToby — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:53:42 GMT

I know while most of us think we know better in situation like this, it is possible that Amazon is correct. A had a credit card which allowed me to use the rewards points in exchange for Amazon merchandise, and I could order through the credit card site -- without logging into Amazon. Once I linked the accounts, it became possible.

The OP's accounts are obviously linked (otherwise, she would not be able to pay with points). The fact is that neither the OP nor anyone here has all of the details. There are things that only Amazon and Discover can see and discover through their internal records, and they will handle the situation. Simply blaming Amazon without having all of the facts and accusing the representative of lying is irresponsible.

Re: Amazon account compromised

Marianne1 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:54:00 GMT

Are you sure it was REALLY Amazon that contacted you and not the perp?

Re: Amazon account compromised

Marp2 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:04:04 GMT

Lulu,

Do you ever access the Internet through a public or unsecured wifi connection? Do you leave your smartphone data connection and/or bluetooth connections on? Either of these actions can leave you open to hacking and with the amount of information stored on digital devices it doesn't take much to connect dots.

Re: Amazon account compromised

Zhills — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 21:36:00 GMT

This happened to me when I ordered an expensive item and put it on my husband's card (already on the account). I do believe it is Amazon's attempt to protect you. I had to cancel the order and reorder the item.

Re: Amazon account compromised

Say Nay — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:55:22 GMT

I'm sure you already know this but I hope you didn't access your account using any links in the order confirmation email you received.

Re: Amazon account compromised

sfnative — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:05:38 GMT

Hi lulu,

Really bad stuff going on out there. Thank you for posting this. It's made me go to Amazon to change my really lame password.

Hope you have no residuals from this experience.

Re: Amazon account compromised

Lipstickdiva — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:12:45 GMT

I had 2 cards on file with them and deleted them both. You can never be too safe.

Re: Amazon account compromised

lulu2 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:25:07 GMT

On 1/23/2015 KYToby said:
I know while most of us think we know better in situation like this, it is possible that Amazon is correct. A had a credit card which allowed me to use the rewards points in exchange for Amazon merchandise, and I could order through the credit card site -- without logging into Amazon. Once I linked the accounts, it became possible.

The OP's accounts are obviously linked (otherwise, she would not be able to pay with points). The fact is that neither the OP nor anyone here has all of the details. There are things that only Amazon and Discover can see and discover through their internal records, and they will handle the situation. Simply blaming Amazon without having all of the facts and accusing the representative of lying is irresponsible.

I did not say the Amazon rep was lying. I thought it was odd that he did not want me to contact the third party and seemed less than happy when I said that I'd given the information to Discover.

If someone had gotten my credit card information elsewhere, they still needed my unique Amazon password to access my account. When I asked the rep if this were true, he never gave me a yes or no answer, rather changed the subject.

If I use my Discover card on Amazon, I am automatically asked if I want to use Cash Back dollars. It is the only site I use where I've ever been able to do so. Maybe it is a perk for this type Discover account. It is not something I personally linked.

If I ever order from Amazon again, I will make sure I remove my credit card information as soon as the order clears.

Re: Amazon account compromised

lulu2 — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:26:49 GMT

On 1/23/2015 Complicated said:
Are you sure it was REALLY Amazon that contacted you and not the perp?

Absolutely. When I initially contacted Amazon to report the incident, I was given a case number. The perp would have no way of knowing that number.