Residents of Indiana County are being warned about a telephone scam involving Amazon accounts.
Pennsylvania State Police have received reports of a scam in which the caller tells of a problem with a purchase on the residents’ Amazon account. According to the complaints, the caller then provided a phone number and advised them to contact Amazon at that number to discuss the alleged problem.
“When we recognize a pattern with a particular scam, we notify the public about what we’re hearing,” said State Police Public Information Officer Cliff Greenfield. “I’m not aware of Amazon.com doing this. It has every indicator of a scam.”
Fortunately, the intended victims recognized the trickery and did not lose any money.
“If we can get the message out to the community and prevent people from sustaining a monetary loss and learn to discuss these scams with their family members and friends, the more information we can get out there the better,” Greenfield said. “We are thankful for people in our Indiana County community who recognize these scams and call us to report them.”
The Better Business Bureau is aware of the Amazon phone call scams and said there are ways to notice them. Be skeptical of email and unsolicited calls, ignore unsolicited messages that ask for personal information, ignore calls for immediate action, beware of requests to pay via wire transfer, prepaid debit card or CashApp. Report the call to Amazon at its customer service.
The State Police also received reports of a different scam in which a resident received an email advising them of a problem with a computer security software purchase. The email included a fictitious telephone number and instructed the intended victim to contact customer service at that number to discuss the alleged purchase.
“We want to keep the public informed about new scams because they’re always changing and becoming more sophisticated. You have to be very alert and keep on top of them just by doing your own research,” Greenfield said.
When in doubt, Greenfield advised, contact your local law enforcement agency to discuss suspicious activity.
