My cell phone rang today. An unknown Florida number. I answer. A man using a heavy accent tells me that someone has just placed a $120 order on my Amazon account. Was it me who placed that order? No, it was not.
Then the caller said he was going to put me through to his "supervisor" to stop the charge. Of course, I recognized this as a scam. But I played along.
When the "supervisor" came on the line, he repeated the same premise--that someone placed an unauthorized order of $120 on my Amazon account. This man also had a very heavy foreign accent (perhaps Pakistan or India). Then, he begins phishing for information from me. What type of electronic devises do I have at my house? Am I using an Android phone?
What difference does it make what kind of phone I have? "Because the cancellation devise is different on Android phones."
When I asked, "Is this a scam? It sounds like a scam," he shouted some obscenity at me and hung up.
Scams are the norm of the day. And the US Supreme Court has recently made it easier than ever to make scam robo calls. They will be increasing, although millions of scam calls are made every day.
We recommend hanging up on these calls immediately, then blocking their number. Even if you do block them, they will probably just call again, using a different number.
Since most of these scammers are outside the US, there isn't much law enforcement can do to stop them. Protect yourself by never giving out personal information (name, address, phone number, bank information or credit card information) to callers. Legitimate callers won't ask you for that information. But if you do fall victim to these criminals, they can ruin your credit and clean out your accounts. It may take years to restore what they steal or damage.
Never, ever send a gift card, prepaid charge card or any type of payment to these thieves. Remember, the scams change day by day. Today it's your Amazon account, tomorrow it's your Social Security card, next day it will be something else. But no legitimate business will call you and ask you to provide personal information over the phone, and they certainly won't ask you to mail them gift cards, money or other types of payments.
If you have elderly friends or loved ones, please pass this post along to them, because they are most often the victims of these malicious criminals.
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