RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Criminals are taking advantage of a piece of online technology designed to make our lives easier.
Bridal and baby registries run by Amazon are now targets of scammers who use them to help steal your identity– or that of your unborn child.
Bridal registries and baby shower registries help us celebrate with the happy couple, but criminals have turned some of those registries into something sinister.
“What they care about is getting your information so they can impersonate you,” said James Lee of the Identity Theft Resource Center.
Amazon’s online Bridal and baby registries are particularly problematic.
Consumer Investigator Steve Sbraccia found out how easy it is to access information on those sites without even creating an account.
He picked a random name and typed it into the page’s search box. It revealed scores of couples with that same name.
The listing showed first and last names of both partners, as well as the wedding date and where it’s going to take place– all of which is valuable information to scammers.
“They want to use that information they got from a registry and from an identity marketplace or data breach and use that to impersonate you in a new account to make money or to hide money they’ve stolen elsewhere,” said Lee.
Finding out you’ve been impersonated online can be a hit or miss.
“It’s very difficult to find out someone has…
