HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — After a fake Amazon customer service phone number cost a Brandon man hundreds of dollars, he made a call for action to Consumer Reporter Jackie Callaway.
Amazon Prime member Al Velez said his trouble started when he used Google to search for an Amazon customer service phone number.
“Someone answered immediately and said he was with the Amazon support desk,” said Velez, who was trying to reach Amazon about the delivery status of a part he ordered for his fish tank.
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But it turned out the man wasn’t a representative from Amazon. Hours later, someone delivered to Velez’s doorstep an Amazon bag containing eight Amazon gift cards — each $100 — that Velez said he never ordered. When he contacted his bank, Velez said he discovered $800 had been debited from his account.
The imposter had gained access to Velez’s Amazon account, ordered the gift cards and likely stolen the money from the cards using the numbers on the back.
“I’d been stressed out for a couple of months since I had not been able to recoup this money,” Velez told ABC Action News.
ABC Action News has exposed other Amazon customer service imposters tricking consumers out of their money.
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A Google search of the Amazon customer service phone number came back with more than a billion hits — many of them fake.
After Taking Action Reporter Jackie Callaway contacted Amazon about Velez’s case, the company agreed to refund Velez’s money as a courtesy.
An Amazon spokesperson said, “Customer trust is a top priority. Amazon works to evolve ahead of bad actors to safeguard products and features from misuse. More information on gift card scams can be found on our common gift cards scam page. On this page, we provide customers with information on how to evaluate if an email, phone call or webpage is actually managed by Amazon.”
Experts recommend never using a web search to find the customer service number for a company you do business with. Instead, contact the company through its official app or the webpage you use to log into your account.