Reply With QuoteMaybe your Amazon account password has been breached?
So there was a strange entry on my credit card statement for £12.34 with an Amazon reference. After much research I got a support phone number for Amazon and, after a rather difficult to understand phone conversation with some yanks, they confirmed this debit wasn't them. So I then spoke to the credit card company and after another difficult conversation with a person with a very hard to understand accent (that's all I'll say) they said it must be fraud so they would deal with it and refund the account. However the thing is this was a credit card that I only use with Amazon.... the details are only stored with Amazon. Also the ref. on the card transaction had Amazon written all over it. This really sounds like there has been a security breach at Amazon however Amazon are not the slightest bit interested.
btw there were also three more transactions, each of a quid, also with Amazon for the reference which were blocked by the card company.
Maybe your Amazon account password has been breached?
If the three small transactions were first - then that points to the thief trying out the card. If the amazon account had been hacked - they would not bother with the small purchases - they would go straight to the high values. As they would know the card worked.
quite common is to use the card to pay for downloads rather than items that require a physical delivery address.
Nope because then the transactions would have been done through amazon and they weren't. The transaction ref. shown on the card statement was false.Originally Posted by andyb28
Yes but this card is ONLY used for Amazon and only stored with Amazon and the fact that the ref. was a fake Amazon reference is suggestive.
I suspect if Amazon had been hacked it would be world news. They couldn't hide it for long. Let's hope they haven't... goes to check account...
tbh, nowadays, unless this sort of news is broadcast on social media then it generally doesn't get known about.
I had a similar thing with a gift card from one of the main big dept. stores. I tried to use it online only to find all the money was gone from it. When I phoned them up they said it had been used to purchase something from their london store. When I pointed out that I live 250 miles away and I hadn't been to london in 20 years they couldn't care less. In then end I had to barrage the company with loads of emails and the only reply was a few weeks later a new gift card came through the post. No reply and no letter... nothing. I'm sure these sort of things go on all the time but the companies just try to ignore them.
This is interesting as I've had two instances of fraudulent activity on my credit card recently but hadn't associated it with Amazon. Initially there was a charge of $299 (I'm in the UK) and on checking previous statements there had been two previous charges for this amount to 'Zaks Investment Research.' On contacting my bank (First Direct) the rep mentioned that another similar amount was due to go out in a couple of days. The card was cancelled, a new one issued within days and all monies refunded. I've had the new card just a couple of weeks and I noticed charges to a company called 'Mybymedia' who I'd never heard of. I contacted the company and have received an e-mail stating that it will refund all amounts and have also spoken to my bank to ensure that no further payments are made. Interestingly, I have registered the new card details with Amazon and used it with one other online company. I'm now wondering whether Amazon is indeed the issue.
In my case they did a very good job of pretending it was amazon.... the transaction ref. on the card statement was identical to a genuine amazon transaction but the phone number on the fake transaction didn't work. I just think that the fact that the card details are stored with amazon and the fact that the transaction on the card was pretending to be amazon looks a little suspicious.
Oh well... just thought I'd pass along the story. I for one will be taking a lot more care checking my credit card statement for strange Amazon charges... I have another card also registered with Amazon.
Ta for warning. Always good to be vigilant. Strange that the pilfered amount is so small.
Not really... It was such a small amount it almost went unnoticed and that was probably intentional. If you can skim £12 each from a few thousand punters then it soon adds up. I don't know if this is another coincidence but I had a genuine purchase of £12.36 the week before (bogus transaction was £12.34)... maybe someone was trying to hide the fraudulent debit?
Last year I had my Natwest card refused at Sainsbury's, which was very embarrassing. I paid with my debit card instead. Once home I phoned Natwest and they agreed they'd stopped it as someone had tried to do a £5 transaction which they, Natwest, knew to be fraudulent. They cancelled the card and sent a new one a few days later. It seems the crooks test a card's validity with a small purchase before going for the big stuff.
They said the crooks got my card number quite some months before. I try hard to only use Paypal with companies I don't deal with regularly. The chances of hacking Paypal itself have to be small; they'll have massive security. But then I'd have thought the same about Amazon, with whom I don have my card registered. I'll get round to adding my mobile number soon as added security.
Good site here to check if your e-mail (and possibly other details) are out in the open.
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
I checked that site with several email addresses, one of which was very old. They all came back having been pwned just the once. False positives, maybe.
have a look at https://howsecureismypassword.net/
It would take a computer about
1 minute
to crack your password
This was a word with a 2 digit number aftwerwards.
Which is a password i used for ebay some years ago and that got hacked with a lot of fake burberry scarfs going on sale at 2am in the morning.
I should be fine. Mine would take 204 million years
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Can I play?
I’ve upped the ante a bit...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Tell me your password and I'll tell you how long it will take a computer to crack your password.
A ha ha ha ha.....
ook
That could be funny indeed. Except it works offline, and you’d have to be pretty stupid to put your real password if you’re in any doubt
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Wouldn't take a good programmer/scammer long to find a program that stored and uploaded later methinks.
People would have to be pretty stupid or naive to give someone their PIN number and card number on the phone but... :-)
Ian
Do you use the Amazon password or a similar one on any other websites?
Far more likely your account was compromised somehow than Amazon was directly hacked. Your computer is a much easier target than theirs ;)
A personal computer may be easier but it's far less lucrative for the criminal fraternity.
I very nearly posted something similar earlier today. A website states that it is offline and your password won't be transmitted over the internet. Yeah right! How the f*^k else is the webpage going to serve information?
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