NIAGARA COUNTY (WKBW) — The Niagara County Sheriff's Office has issued a warning to residents about an Amazon customer service scam.
The sheriff's office says to use caution if you receive a call from someone claiming to be from Amazon customer support advising you of suspicious activity on your account. Officials say an intricate system could be used to steal your identity and/or funds.
"The scammer may leave a message with a false phone number for the organization. When the consumer responds, the scammer convinces the victim to log on to their computer, further telling the consumer to go to unusual sites, enter codes or other information, make odd purchases, and in some cases, allow the scammer to gain control of their computer. Once in control, the scammer can now access bank accounts, passwords, other sensitive information, as well as install malware."
If you get an unusual call the sheriff's office says do not give any personal information, instead log into your Amazon account and contact customer service that way if you have any doubts.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to this scam, the sheriff's office offers the following tips:
- Take immediate action to secure your information by changing passwords on accounts, computers, routers and using 2-step authentication.
- Notify your bank, credit bureaus, and other applicable institutions about the issue.
- Please note: while some departments at Amazon will make outbound calls to customers, Amazon has stated they will never ask customers to disclose or verify their Amazon.com password, credit card, or banking account number.
- If you receive a phone call asking you to disclose the above information, please visit www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/report-phishing.html to report the phone call to Amazon directly. If you had funds stolen, please contact the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office at (716) 438-3393 to file a criminal incident report.
