Many of us have received a phone call, pretending to be from Amazon, that says there was a transaction on your account – if you don’t recognise it, please press 1. Pressing 1 connects you to a scammer. So, what can you do, other than hang up?

In my case, I pretended to fall for the scam, while torturing the scammer by acting stupid while at the same time correcting him on his use of the phonetic alphabet.

Note that I only pretended to do what the scammer wanted – never actually follow the instructions!

How does the scam work?

The first part of the call is a recording. If you press 1, that lets the scammers know that you have an Amazon account and may also be gullible enough to fall for the scam – they connect you to a scammer.

The scammer says that as part of the Amazon security team, they need you to do something on your phone or computer. BTW it could be any retailer, but as most people have an Amazon account then that catches more people.

What they are trying to do is gain remote access to your phone or computer. In this case, he wanted me to install an app called ‘ConnectWise’ on my iPhone. ConnectWise is a legitimate remote-access tool, but in this context it would give the scammers control of the phone.

He then asked me to enter a URL – don’t do that! Entering the URL and agreeing to the session would have led to the next stage of the scam.

Next stage of the scam – the fake refund process

My scammer had given up on me by this point, but this is what would happen…

They’ll ask you to log into your Amazon, Bank, Email, PayPal account etc.

Because they are now watching, they can:

  • Steal your login credentials.
  • Intercept two-factor authentication codes.
  • Edit the web page in real time to trick you.

The accidental over-refund trick

Once you start the fake refund, they manipulate your screen and make it look like:

Amazon refund: $449.99
‘Accidentally refunded’: $4,999.00

They pretend you typed extra zeros. Now they claim you owe them the difference. They ask you send the overpayment back via: Bank transfer, Cash in envelopes, Gift cards (very common), Cryptocurrency, MoneyGram / Western Union.

They use guilt and fear:

“I will lose my job.”
“You must return the money today.”

Break your device

Whatever you do, they’ll also try and break or lock your device and also install some virus. That way they can ask for a ransom to fix it or at least stop you from fixing the mess and changing your passwords.

If you fell for the scam

Disconnect the phone or computer from the internet.

Change your passwords from another device.

Contact the real Amazon / Bank fraud team.

Get someone to check your phone or computer for remote-access users, viruses etc.