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YOUR MONEY
Amazon Fraud Phone Number, CVS Rewards
In the summer of 2017 Google had a serious problem! The search engine was badly poisoned to display scammer phone numbers targeting about two dozen legitimate businesses when someone conducted a search for the customer service numbers. Amazon and Apple, in particular, were hit the hardest and this “search engine poisoning” resulted in tens of thousands of people being victimized. (Breadcrumbs from more than a dozen reports to TDS from victims, as well as the registration of several fake websites, all point to cybercriminal gangs in India as most likely responsible for this fraud.) It took Google several weeks to stop most of the poisoning but it has never completely gone away for long. One of the latest tactics we’ve seen is that the poisoning is very short-loved and then removed. We suspect that this trick makes it harder for Google to find and adjust their search algorithms to protect netizens against this type of fraud.
We first published articles about these fraudulent Amazon and Apple phone numbers and websites in August, 2017. Since that time, we have collected & posted 156 fraudulent phone numbers used by these scammers to represent Amazon customer support. (TDS readers have reported at least another dozen phone numbers but we have been unable to verify them as fraudulent and so will not post them.) The reason we mention this is because this type of fraud is still very active. One reader recently informed us that his elderly parents searched for Amazon customer support to refund a $9 item on June 10. They found the number posted on a website named PrimeNewsAM[.]com. When they called the number they spoke with someone with an Indian accent.
The edlerly man was asked to give his personal information (last 4 digits of his social security number, his full address, and phone number). He was then manipulated into receiving and clicking a link on his computer that gave the scammer full control of his computer. The scammer went through the mother’s email, and probably much more, and eventually logged into their bank account. The scammer said this was necessary in order to refund their $9. Then the story gets even crazier, according to the son. The scammer made it appear that he had accidentally sent the father $4,000 from Amazon, instead of refunding $9. At that point the scammer asked the father to go to a store like Target and purchase $4,000 worth of gift cards to Amazon. and to read him back the codes of the gift cards over the phone. And the father actually believed the scammer and tried to do exactly that! That is until a friendly Target security person overhead what was going on and stopped the man, telling him that this was all a scam. Thank goodness for that security person!
Below is the photo that the son took of his dad’s computer screen. It clearly shows that a website named primenewsam[.]com says the Amazon Prime Customer Service number is 800-440-7566. THIS IS NOT THE REAL AMAZON PHONE NUMBER! This is a scam phone number! When we visited that website hours later, that message and fraudulent number had been removed.
Anyone with a pulse and paying attention should notice several things about this recent CVS Rewards email that don’t make sense…
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It appears to have been sent from the domain calvinklein.com
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The subject line says it is about a “$50 CVS Gift Card Opportunity but the email asks if you want a $100 gift card
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The “TO” email address and “Reply-To” email addresses are bizarre.
We were unable to capture the link associated with “Get Yours Now” from this email but we can GUARANTEE that this email is 100% malicious clickbait!
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