TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa woman wants to warn others after she almost fell for a fake Amazon scheme.
Jessica Mills answered her phone to a recording about a recent Amazon purchase she’d made.
The call claimed her account would be charged and her item shipped soon.
The problem, Mills hadn’t made the order and she was worried about the large amount of money being deducted from her Prime account. That’s when the recording told her to stay on the line.
“It said if you did not make this order, press one,” Mills said.
So, she did as the recording said and the line took her to a representative claiming to be with Amazon “support."
“He was asking me all these questions, told me his name and his ID number,” Mills said.
The man even gave her the personal information of the person he claimed made the fraudulent purchase.
After that, he told her to make a report to Tulsa police and that he had already contacted them and to expect a call shortly.
Sure enough, Mills got a call from what appeared to be the Tulsa Police non-emergency line.
“So, when I answered the phone number, it was the phone number for the police department, and I asked the lady 'Are you an officer?' And she said "yes" and she was, she had a foreign accent, too.” Mills said.
It was during the conversation with the so-called “detective” that the alarm bells started going off in her head.
The woman asked her extremely sensitive information about her bank account and how much was in it.
“I just hung up right away,” Jessica said.
While she doesn’t think she gave them what they were looking for, she’s still worried about how much they knew.
They found out her name, address, phone number and where she banks.
Even stranger, a few days later, she received a call from another woman states away who has also gotten the call.
“I answered the phone and she just starts yelling and cut me down and cussed me out," Mills said. "And I'm like, Whoa, who are you and she goes, "I got your name and number from this Amazon dudes and you're ordering all kinds of stuff,' and I’m like 'whoa, whoa.' You need to cool off I just found out it’s a scam.”
2 Works for You reached out to Amazon about the scheme and they sent us this:
“We take customer security seriously and never ask customers to provide sensitive personal information like their social security number, tax ID, bank account number, credit card information, or other personal information.”
As for Mills, she hopes her story helps others.
“I just think it was very, it was very clever, kept cleverly done. And a lot of people would fall for it,” Mills said.
Tulsa police told 2 Works for You the Amazon fraud department will never have a detective call you to make a report.
Police said if you get a call like this, hang up and don’t give them any information.
Helpful Amazon info:
- How to identify a legitimate Amazon call CLICK HERE.
- Amazon does not recommend searching for their phone number through search engines. Instead they recommend customers to log into their Amazon account and use the "Contact Us" link.
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