Many shoppers rely on online shopping to buy gifts for the holidays, and it’s a popular option in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
But this convenient method to cross items off your shopping list could lead to all kinds of scams if you’re not careful.
One scammer tried to fool Ed Marshall, a New Jersey man who is no stranger to fraudulent calls.
Back in 2015, he was profiled in a Bamboozled column after he strung along a sweepstakes scammer who claimed Marshall had won a $2.5 million prize from Publishers Clearing House and a Mercedes Benz.
This time a caller left a message saying an order had just been placed with Amazon, and if it wasn’t valid, he should call back a number with an 855 area code. (The area code is a toll-free number that happens to appear on lists of top area codes that scam calls come from.)
Marshall decided to call the number back.
“I talked to a woman who told me about an order for $275 that was going to be shipped to somewhere in Michigan and asked me if it was a valid order. She knew my name and my correct address,” Marshall said.
Marshall told the caller the order was not valid and it should be canceled.
Then the caller tried to reel him in. She said the only way the order could be canceled was filling out a form.
“I asked her to email me that form, figuring that they would know my email address if they weren’t scammers,” Marshall said. “She said she could not send an email and wanted me to get onto my computer in front of me while I was on the phone with her.”
Now he knew for sure the call was a scam.
Marshall told the caller he has canceled orders with Amazon in the past and he knew the caller should be able to cancel his order right then and there.
Marshall hung up the phone and called Amazon.
He gave all the information about the scam call to the retailer, which sent him an email a few minutes later.
Amazon wrote: “Although some departments at Amazon.com make outbound calls to customers, we’ll never call you asking that you disclose or verify your Amazon.com password, credit card, or banking account number. Such information should only be submitted when completing an order on Amazon.com, registering to sell on Amazon, contacting Amazon.com directly, or when making updates to Your Account or Seller Account areas.”
It asked customers to report any suspicious calls or any other contacts. You can do that here.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 467,361 complaints in 2019 — nearly 1,300 every day on average — and recorded more than $3.5 billion in losses to individual and business victims in 2019.
Many of the scams resulted from scam phone calls and fake emails.
If you get a call from a number you don’t recognize, don’t answer it. Also be suspicious if the Caller ID says the call is from a legitimate entity. It’s easy for con artists to “spoof” a number to make it look like it’s really coming from a well-known entity.
If the call is authentic, the caller will leave a message. But as Marshall saw, some scammers will leave messages, too. Rather than return the call, find the company’s number with an online search or just log in to your account to see if there are any problems you need to resolve.
Whatever you do, don’t give up any of your private information.
If you receive an email that says it’s from a retailer you’ve done business with, don’t blindly click on any links in the email. Scammers will often add the logos of real companies to their emails, so that alone won’t verify the email. If the message is from a scammer, the link may lead to a site that impersonates a real retailer and is designed to trick you to share your personal information.
Instead, go directly to the retailer’s website and log in independently to check your account.
You can report scams to the Federal Trade Commission and IC3.
Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.
Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
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December 17, 2020 at 11:02PM
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