Amazon Gold Ventures: Amazon Notification Fraud Emails

By Author: amazongold ventures
Total Articles: 3
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A recent fraud involving Amazon notification emails has been making the rounds online with the following on the subject line:
Subject: Your order has been successfully cancelled.
But instead of being sent by Amazon.com, this message actually comes from spoofed emails (in this case, from orders@amazon.com). The link embedded in the email will usually take you to a login page designed to look like it's really Amazon.com so as to collect your login details.
Because of the subject, Amazon users who are actually waiting for some pending orders will feel compelled to contact Amazon.com about the cancellation.
Not only that, there are also tons of other fraudulent transactions being done through Amazon.
- A man pleaded guilty in a fraud accusation that involves £500,000. He and a bunch of other people teamed up and allegedly used stolen credit card information to buy his own songs on Amazon and iTunes.
Lamar Johnson, a 19-year old from Wolverhampton, was charged one count of conspiracy to defraud along with 11 others.
They reportedly downloaded the songs more than 6,000 times between January ...
... 2008 and June 2009 in order to get royalties from the sales.
According to Johnson, he was responsible for around 2,000 of the downloads.
- Another incident involved someone who paid $400 for gold items he bought but since the seller was out of stock already, the order was cancelled. However, according to the poster, Amazon put a hold on his credit card and would not release any funds.
- Someone purchased a Sony digital camera with a bunch of accessories on Amazon and was delighted that he was given a free delivery. However, when the package arrived at their address, it turned out to be a randomly inappropriate book. He suspects that it might be because of some mistake on Amazon's part or a horrible mix up in the delivery contractor. But noticing that the package has his name and address on it just right and that it appears to have been tampered with, he feared that there was some sort of theft or fraud involved.
- A customer bought a laptop through Amazon and was, strangely enough, sent a used laptop. But since the card used in the transaction was closed by the customer already, a USD 40 check was issued as refund instead. However, when it was deposited on the bank, it was discovered that the check is a fraud.
While it is certainly understandable for fraud victims to blame Amazon and wish them all the bad luck, let's also keep in mind that customers also have their responsibilities. Note to self: If you don't want to suffer from horrible customer service and if a transaction looks shady early on, then just buy in a physical store.