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Aug. 1, 2023 - Epoch Times

14:08

Amazon Issues ‘Alert’ to Millions

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	Good evening, and right before we dive into the main topic, I'd like to quickly mention that over on Epic TV, I recently published a super spicy episode detailing a new study which revealed some, you can say, pretty bad news to the recipients of the Moderna mRNA-based vaccine.
	Now, unfortunately, even though in that episode we only went through a peer-reviewed study regarding the percentage of people that experienced heart damage after getting the booster shot, Well, unfortunately, those types of studies, which go directly against the official narrative coming down from the WHO, are not exactly welcome here on YouTube.
	And so, if you'd like to check out that awesome episode in its entirety, you can do so over on Epic TV, our awesome no-centorship video platform.
	The link to that episode will be right there at the very top of the description box below.
	I hope you check it out.
	Now, diving into the main topic, Amazon, one of America's largest retailers, has just put out an urgent notice.
	And in this notice, they're warning millions of Americans to watch out for some new tactics that online scammers are using in order to get their hands on your hard-earned money.
	Specifically, in a statement that they sent out to millions of their customers, here's what Amazon wrote.
	Quote, Now, what they said here about scammers constantly trying new methods is what they said here about scammers constantly trying new methods is absolutely
	In fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission, between July of 2020 and June of 2021, which is the latest publicly available data, around 96,000 people here in America were targeted by some form of Amazon-related scam, with them cumulatively losing about a total of $27 million at least.
	That's the minimum.
	Chief among these scams is one that pretends to inform you about some problems with your Amazon Prime account.
	Here's again this statement.
	Some include text messages, emails, and even phone calls saying that your Amazon account or Prime membership was deleted or suspended.
	It also includes a fraudulent link or tries to get members to provide information verbally to verify their account.
	However, the links to the webpages that those emails and text messages lead you to are not real Amazon pages.
	Quote, And, like any good scammer worth their salt, like any good scammer worth their salt, their salt, these Amazon scammers create a sense of urgency in order for you to act right now to give them your information, leading Amazon to write this in their warning.
	Quote, Scammers will try to create a sense of urgency in a bid to get victims to click a fake link or provide them with information.
	Be wary any time someone tries to convince you that you must act now.
	Now, just as you would imagine, according to the Federal Trade Commission, these types of scams are particularly effective against individuals who are a bit older, particularly those over the age of 60 who perhaps did not grow up with the computer culture that we have today.
	In fact, the FTC, they noted that, quote, people aged 60 and older were particularly at risk of such scams, while younger people were not.
	Older people, meanwhile, were more likely to be scammed out of money than younger people.
	Furthermore, in terms of just the sheer number of the different scams out there, well, last year alone, according to the Better Business Bureau, there were at least 202 different Amazon Prime scams and another 186 Amazon-related scams that they were able to detect.
	And while, of course, we can't go through all of them in this episode, let's break down the top six scams to watch out for.
	And by the way, I hope that if you appreciate content like this, you do take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this critical information can reach ever more people via the YouTube algorithm.
	Now, let's start with scam number one.
	Amazon sellers asking you to make payments outside the Amazon platform.
	Now, this is a fairly typical scam, wherein you have a quote-unquote Amazon seller tricking people into making payments not through the Amazon platform, but through other places like Venmo, Zelle, or even through wire transfers via Western Union.
	Now, if you go ahead with it, you basically forfeit any sort of buyer protection that you would normally have.
	Meaning that if you get scammed this way, well, there's very, very little chance of actually getting your money back.
	And the way that this scam works is rather simple.
	Here's how generally it's set up.
	The scammer creates an Amazon listing for what looks like a perfectly genuine product.
	They might even add some fake reviews to build the product's credibility and build your trust in the product.
	Then, when you try and buy the product, the scammer then contacts you directly with a link to some payment platform that's outside of Amazon.
	Again, something like the Cash App, Venmo, or perhaps Western Union.
	And then, if you go along with it, your payment, and potentially even your credit card information, goes straight to the scammer.
	And so the best way to avoid this particular scam is to not even entertain the idea of paying for Amazon products outside the Amazon platform.
	Scam number two, phone calls requesting personal information.
	This is when a scammer calls you directly over the phone, pretending to be someone from Amazon.
	And then, over the phone, they request that you hand over some type of personal information to verify that it's you.
	And the problem with this type of a scam is that a scammer might call, let's say, a thousand people in a day.
	And maybe one or two of those people were actually waiting for a call from Amazon.
	Maybe there was something wrong with their account.
	I mean, Amazon Prime has over 160 million users, and so calling 1,000 people, you'll inevitably reach someone who's having an actual problem with their account.
	This is why these types of scams are so nefarious.
	And so the best and perhaps only way to avoid this type of a situation is to have a personal policy of never giving out personal information over the phone like that.
	Because, among other reasons, neither Amazon, nor, for that matter, any legitimate, reputable company, would call you and then ask you to confirm who you are by giving out personal information over the phone.
	As soon as they do, well, that's a red flag, and you should perhaps hang up right away.
	Then there's scam number three, the famous mystery boxes over on Amazon.
	Now, if you've been scrolling on Amazon for any length of time, you're bound to come across those mystery box product listings.
	Basically, it's someone selling a box with unknown contents, but the so-called possibilities of what might be inside are just too good to be true.
	The box might cost $50 or $100, but the seller claims that it might have several thousand dollars worth of electronics inside of it.
	And so, they bill this box as essentially playing the lottery.
	You buy it, hoping to get something worth more than you're actually paying for.
	And oftentimes, these listings have a plethora of fake reviews, telling people how great the contents of the box actually were.
	But more likely than not, it's a scam with the bulk of these mystery boxes containing junk that no one would actually buy.
	Then there's scam number four, where the scammers turn the tables and reach out to you saying that Amazon actually owes you some money.
	Basically, the way that this scam works is that you might receive an email claiming to be from an Amazon representative.
	And in that email, they tell you that you need to get in touch with them right away because they say that there's been an unauthorized purchase on your account.
	Or in another version of the scam, they tell you that there's some issue with your recent purchase that you actually placed.
	You call them back on the phone number that's listed in the email, and then the fake Amazon rep tells you that you're owed a fat refund because of either fraud or because, again, you've been overcharged on some purchase that you've made.
	And then in order to fix the issue, you simply need to grant this quote-unquote Amazon representative access to your computer.
	They need to gain remote access to your computer to fix the problem.
	And then, of course, if you grant them the access, they will hack your personal finance information, or they'll lead you to some fake website where they'll make tons of purchases and things like that.
	And so the lesson here is that if someone from Amazon reaches out to you, don't call the number that's listed in the email.
	Instead, just log into your actual Amazon account, look at the back end, and see if there's really any problems with your recent orders.
	There you will know the truth.
	And then, right before we move on, let me quickly introduce the sponsor of today's episode by showing you this little piece of money.
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	So hit them up.
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	Of course, all their details will be down in the description box below.
	And now let's head on back to the studio.
	There is scam number five, which works similar to the other scams, but it's done through text message instead.
	It works like this.
	You receive a text message from someone claiming to be from Amazon.
	They tell you in this text that you've won a prize, or you have a new line of credit waiting for you, or you need to resolve some issue with your recent purchase.
	And then, if you call the number listed in that text, the scammer will, as always, elicit your personal information in order to confirm that it's you.
	Or, alternatively, you could click on the link in the text message and it'll download malware to your phone, especially if you happen to have an Android device.
	And so, the solution to this one is just to not respond to any text messages claiming to be from Amazon.
	If they indeed tell you in the text that you have a problem with your account, well then just simply go to your account, look in the backend, and see if that's really the case.
	And then there's scam number six.
	Fake websites that look like official Amazon pages.
	This is when you get some sort of official-looking email about your Amazon account.
	You click on the link in the email, thinking you're going to some Amazon-affiliated page, and once you get there, it does actually look like a real Amazon website.
	However, you glance up and you notice that the domain of that website is something like amazon-billing.com, and that's fake.
	These scammers, they essentially build these landing pages to look like the real thing, on a fake domain that also looks real.
	And as you likely guessed, if you happen to put in any of your personal information on that webpage, well, all that information will go straight to the scammers.
	And this particular scam is exploding in popularity.
	In fact, in just one year alone, a company called Checkpoint Software, which is a company that tracks these sort of scams, they found that about 2,300 new domain names related to the word Amazon were registered.
	With the vast majority of them very likely being registered with the intent to scam people.
	And so the lesson here is that if you ever find yourself on some website called amazon-services-billing.com, well, I would suggest you get out of there ASAP. And so these were some of the top Amazon scams.
	But of course, there are many, many, many others.
	There are people sending fake Amazon invoices, and then when you call the number that's listed on the invoice, they of course, as always, request personal information in order to verify that it's you.
	There are scam emails telling you that your Amazon account is going to be frozen unless you verify your identity within 12 hours.
	There are people posting fake Amazon job offers on career websites, and then when you call them to discuss the job, they get your personal information that way, and so on and so forth.
	There are so many different variations of these scams.
	And personally, I used to think that people were ridiculous for falling for these obvious scams.
	But I don't think that anymore.
	Because in the last year, I received at least two of these text messages and I almost fell for them.
	Because I happened to place an Amazon order and within 12 hours, I received a text message saying that there was some issue with my order.
	Now, fortunately, I realized that those were fake messages.
	But then I realized, wow, probably today alone, there will be thousands of people across the country who placed an Amazon order and then received a message just like this one.
	Telling them that there was something wrong with their order.
	And then they'll call up the number there to speak with a person, not knowing that that's an actual scammer.
	And so, essentially, for these scammers, volume is the name of the game.
	You message enough people about some fake Amazon account issue, and, well, you're bound to reach a significant portion of people who actually have issues with their Amazon accounts, thinking that that message is really for them.
	And so, in general...
	Consider being very wary about handing over your personal information through the phone.
	Consider not clicking on the links from random messages that you weren't expecting.
	Consider not granting anyone control access to your computer.
	And just in general, be wary of the many scammers out there with ill intent.
	If you'd like to read a more comprehensive list of these different Amazon scams that have been uncovered thus far, I'll throw the links to several resources down into the description box below this video for you to check out, which is of course that description box right below those like and subscribe buttons that I hope you have already smashed.
	And then lastly, as I mentioned at the top of today's episode as well, over on Epic TV, I just published a super, super spicy episode detailing a new study which revealed some unsettling news to the recipients of the Moderna mRNA-based vaccine.
	Now, unfortunately, even though in that episode we only went through a peer-reviewed study regarding the percentage of people who experienced muscle damage following booster vaccination, well, unfortunately, those types of studies, peer-reviewed or not, And so, if you'd like to check out that episode in its entirety, you can do so over on Epic TV, our awesome no-censorship video platform.
	The link to it will be right there at the very top of the description box below.
	Just click on that link, and you can head on over and watch that episode right away.
	And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.

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