There are so many ways to get tricked into giving up your personal information that it’s scary. The latest scam takes advantage of the 300 million active global accounts (200 million global paying customers) that Amazon has. If a scam artist could somehow trick a small percentage of Amazon customers into giving up some of their personal information, he could probably put himself in a position to steal plenty of money by making unauthorized purchases.
If you get a text from Amazon asking for your personal information, do not answer it
Here’s how this scam works. A bad actor obtains your personal information allowing him to change the password on your Amazon account. He changes the address of the account to a PO Box he controls and starts ordering expensive items that are charged to your card. By the time you realize what’s going on, these pricey products have been converted to cash. At the end of the day, if you’re lucky, the credit card company takes the hit.
And one way that these scammers are obtaining personal data is by sending out bogus text messages pretending to be from Amazon. WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania reports that a text claiming to be from Amazon has been received by some smartphone owners. The text says that it is from Amazon Assistance and states, “We have detected a problem with your account information. Please verify your information correctly.”
What the scammer is hoping you’ll do is click on a link in the text and fill in the…
