Community Chat

[Spurt]

It seems to me that with all the money that Jeff Bezos and Amazon makes they could do a better job of shutting down these scammers.....

[happycat]

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@Linda0215 wrote:

I work for a bank and we are constantly being trained on how to recognize scams.  Let me tell you, they are everywhere.  You need to stop and question every alert that comes your way no matter how legitimate you think it is.  Never, ever click on an email link, text message link, respond to a voicemail or give any personal information over the phone.  You cannot believe how sophisticated these scammers can be.  With that being said, there are things you can do to protect yourself.  Hover your mouse over the sender's email address. It may look like it's coming from Amazon, but hovering your mouse reveals it's some random, nonsensical account.  Check the grammar and spelling.  Amazon or any legitimate vendor will not send anything out with poor punctuation or grammar.  Don't fall for a sense of urgency in the request (someone poses as a family member on vacation and was robbed and needs you to wire money NOW).  And most importantly, if anything you receive is questionable or doesn't make sense call the vendor, explain that your received this request and ask if it is legitimate.   100% of the time, it is not.   

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Thank you for those tips, @Linda0215.

[Alexa6352]

@happycat  I get the same E-mails and I don't have an Amazon Account..I get them about Paypal and once again I don't have a Paypal account...I guess they figure if they get one person to believe thm.they've had a good day!

[chickenbutt]

Linda really put it out there with facts!

One thing I would add is to NEVER EVER click on anything in these emails.  Don't call any phone number that might be in the email. 

If one wonders if it came from Amazon, or wherever, go to another browser window and go there.  Don't ever use any links provided in these emails.  Go with your own known url to the company.

It does help, as others have mentioned, to report them to the company and include the email so they can look through to find where it originated.

[Mindy D]

@happycat Take a screen shot of phony emails before deleting them. I also forward my phony email to Amazon. Forward to stop-spoofing@amazon.com

They need this to stay ahead of the scammers.

[Mindy D]

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@Spurt wrote:

It seems to me that with all the money that Jeff Bezos and Amazon makes they could do a better job of shutting down these scammers.....

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@Spurt @Even when Amazon and law enforcement track down the culprits they are often linked to foreign countries where law enforcement has no jusisdictiction. They frequently shut down and start back up somewhere else

[Spurt]

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@Mindy D wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

It seems to me that with all the money that Jeff Bezos and Amazon makes they could do a better job of shutting down these scammers.....

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@Spurt @Even when Amazon and law enforcement track down the culprits they are often linked to foreign countries where law enforcement has no jusisdictiction. They frequently shut down and start back up somewhere else

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@Mindy D 

A little bit of cash from Bezos would get some cooperation from these foreign countries....some of these foreign scammers have been shut down....Here's some success stories

Dept Of Justice News 11/20/20

 “Working with our law enforcement partners around the globe we have successfully executed a large-scale, multi-jurisdictional investigation and prosecution targeting the owner and operator of an India call center scam industry and held him accountable for his illegal acts and deter similar scams in the future.”  He has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for scamming U.S. victims out of millions of dollars. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $8, 970,396 to identified victims of his crimes.

Here's more--

The US has filed lawsuits against five companies and three individuals allegedly responsible for making hundreds of millions of fake robocalls to American consumers from abroad, mostly from India, and causing massive financial losses to the elderly and the vulnerable. "We are using all available tools and resources to stop foreign call center scammers - and for the first time their US-based enablers - from conning elderly and vulnerable victims in New York and throughout the United States," said US Attorney Richard Donoghue.

Dec 30, 2020---

 A federal court has permanently shut down a computer scam that preyed on elderly Americans using call center operators in India resulting in losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Acknowledging India’s cooperation, Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark said: “The department is grateful for the cooperation of foreign law enforcement, including India’s CBI, in investigating, disrupting, and prosecuting technical-support fraud schemes and other schemes originating abroad and directed at the American public.”