I’ve noticed an increased number of Amazon scams as of late. Some of my clients have been reporting fairly elaborate (and convincing) messages telling them that they have problems with orders, unpaid invoices, or orders pending delivery. The links in these messages are obviously not goint to take you to an Amazon website. These types of messages are a type of phishing message. Most of the time, they are trying to get into your Amazon account where you probably have your credit card information stored.
Once they’re in your account, they start placing orders using your name and credit card. When they place the order, they won’t usually have it shipped to your home or business. Instead, they’ll ship it to a drop point for pickup later. Recently, I uncovered just this situation happening in Plymouth. One of my customers told me that they were receiving random Amazon deliveries and they don’t even shop on Amazon. The names on the packages were for random people that they did not know. I informed him that his address was being used as a drop location and that people could show up at his house to pick up those packages. Needless to say, he was a little shocked.
So how do you protect against these scams? Well, first of all, don’t click on the links. These messages are designed to collect your login information. Once they have your credentials, they can essentially pretend to be you and order as much stuff as they. By the time you realize there’s a problem, it’s probably already too late. The damage will be done.
If you suspect that you’re a drop location, there’s not a whole lot you can do other than inform the delivery driver. Sadly, I don’t think that most police agencies take these things too seriously, mostly because there’s not much they can do. It’s extremely difficult to investigate and prosecute these types of cases.