I Got Scammed To Send Amazon Gift Cards

[Leesbro63]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I got scammed. I got an email from a very trustworthy neighbor asking me to send a $400 Amazon gift card to a friend who just lost her job. Actually it was two cards to the same person, each for $200. My trusted neighbor said her credit card wasn't working. The Email had her nickname and other things that made me not think twice. I'm such a fool.

My question is that it appears there's no way to cancel the order (the email address where it was sent probably spent it by now). There's no way to call Amazon and there appears to be no way to even Email them...the link just keeps taking me to various menu's from which to chose a topic.

I suspect I'm beat. Fortunately it wasn't thousands of dollars. Any advice?

[02nz]

The money is almost certainly lost, but you can try chatting with Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us

[FS51]

Have you tried https://smile.amazon.com/gp/help/custom ... redirect=1 ?

I get an option for live chat as well as to have Amazon call me.

Sorry to hear about the scam!

[ThankYouJack]

I would contact Amazon and still try to cancel.

Also, I would call your credit card company, and see what they say. Maybe they'll refund you.

[Dave55]

Amazon customer service phone number 1 (888) 280-4331
I would think you can also dispute the charge on your credit card.


Dave

[Watty]

If you got the gift cards electronically and have the gift card numbers then you could try using them ASAP if they have not already been used.

[mega317]

It is even a little more disgusting scamming people related to COVID. I wonder how much this particular scammer has gotten. And from how many pepole who have lost their jobs and aren't in great spots themselves. I feel sick. Sorry, OP.

[Leesbro63]

The money is almost certainly lost, but you can try chatting with Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us

Nope. That link lists the phone number but the automated answering message says they’re too busy to take phone calls due to the COVID emergency. The other option on the link you gave me is to cancel the order. When I go into that, other stuff I ordered CAN be cancelled, but the gift card doesn’t give that option.

[core4portfolio]

Once I got 200 worth of amazon GC sent to some one came to my address which is for christmas gift for someone else
Amazon customer support is helpful in sending it back to sender ...
Contact Amazon customer support and they can able to help you with all these kind of issues and trained for that

[Cwise]

How do you know it wasn't the neighbor with fake email accounts? I mean if the neighbor knew that much info. Did you ask the neighbor? Do you have the email with the header info? You can probably track the ip address to see if it originated from the same internet provider you use.

[StormShadow]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I got scammed. I got an email from a very trustworthy neighbor asking me to send a $400 Amazon gift card to a friend who just lost her job. My trusted neighbor said her credit card wasn't working. The Email had her nickname and other things that made me not think twice. I'm such a fool.

Sorry you got hooked. Thats awful. Stories like this make me paranoid about solicitations for money. I always double check (e.g. call them). I hope you are able to recover the money.

Its small consolation, but kudos for you for being so generous to a friend of a friend.

[Silk McCue]

So sorry that this happened to you. I expect that there is no way to recover this money. In hindsight you should have spoken to your neighbor to discuss this.

I expect the Gift cards have already been spent. You could try to spend them to see.

Be wary, they will now seek to target you using others means and methods.

Cheers

[fru-gal]

You can chat with amazon. When the chat bot starts just type agent. You may have to wait for a human for some time.

Why would your neighbor ask you to send money?

[Leesbro63]

You can chat with amazon. When the chat bot starts just type agent. You may have to wait for a human for some time.

Why would your neighbor ask you to send money?

Specifically how do I use the chat?

[HomeStretch]

Sorry to hear you were scammed. Agree with suggestions about Amazon chat and credit card company. Did you let your neighbor know so they can warn other people in their contact list?

[oldfatguy]

I would think you can also dispute the charge on your credit card.

I don't think there is a CC dispute here. OP made a legitimate purchase.

[Leesbro63]

I would think you can also dispute the charge on your credit card.

I don't think there is a CC dispute here. OP made a legitimate purchase.

I'm the OP and I agree. I'm on "chat' with Amazon right now. I'll report back soon.

[cherijoh]

I expect the Gift cards have already been spent. You could try to spend them to see.

+1

I had my wallet stolen from my purse while I was visiting with a group of friends back in early December. I had just started home when one of my credit card companies (a bank with whom I had set up mobile banking) texted me to verify if I had just tried to use the card to make a $1000+ purchase at a Target. The store was about 5 miles from the cafe and my wallet had been stolen no more than 45 minutes before they started their spending spree. (My credit union allowed several thousand dollars of debits on my debit card and another card let through a large purchase at Best Buy). Fortunately all of these got reversed.

[Leesbro63]

Sorry to hear you were scammed. Agree with suggestions about Amazon chat and credit card company. Did you let your neighbor know so they can warn other people in their contact list?

My neighbor feels terrible. I'm not the only one. I'm generally not too gullible, but they got me this time.

[Silk McCue]

Sorry to hear you were scammed. Agree with suggestions about Amazon chat and credit card company. Did you let your neighbor know so they can warn other people in their contact list?

My neighbor feels terrible. I'm not the only one. I'm generally not too gullible, but they got me this time.

Its OK if your neighbor feels terrible for you, but not if they somehow feel it is their fault.

Cheers

[Leesbro63]

Sorry to hear you were scammed. Agree with suggestions about Amazon chat and credit card company. Did you let your neighbor know so they can warn other people in their contact list?

My neighbor feels terrible. I'm not the only one. I'm generally not too gullible, but they got me this time.

Its OK if your neighbor feels terrible for you, but not if they somehow feel it is their fault.

Cheers

I agree it's not my neighbor's fault and in no way am I going to make her feel that way. It's my own fault. We all get bogus emails and I was dumb enough to fall for it without checking. I blame no one but myself.

[Dave55]

I would think you can also dispute the charge on your credit card.

I don't think there is a CC dispute here. OP made a legitimate purchase.

I'm the OP and I agree. I'm on "chat' with Amazon right now. I'll report back soon.

You can dispute any charge. Explain what happened to CC company. It never hurts to ask.

Dave

[Leesbro63]

OK, thank you to Homestretch, who suggested I use the chat function with Amazon. I was too flustered to think of that myself. I'm sure I would have thought to do that eventually, but because I got on it immediately (thanks to your suggestion), I was able to save half a loaf.

The good news is that the second card had not been spent yet and Amazon cancelled it and the charge had not even hit my credit card yet. The bad news is that the first card has been spent and they will escalate it to some other department and contact me within 24 hours. I'm not optimistic, because I legitimately ordered. It wasn't anything they did to cause this. So instead of this being a $400 spanking, I'll be out $200 at most. I'm not amused at myself, but I've had worse lessons that cost more than $200.

Thank you all for your help here.

[HomeStretch]

Glad the suggestion for Amazon chat from others and me was helpful. It’s amazing you reacted quickly enough to get at least 1/2 of your money back. Hoping you see the other 1/2 back too!

[Bogle7]

I got an email from a very trustworthy neighbor

No, you did not.
You got an email with a spoofed address.

[Doom&Gloom]

Half-burnt beats totally burnt. Good job saving what you could. Sorry about the rest.

It sounds as if some of your neighbor's other contacts may have also got hit. If so, I hope she can prevent a recurrence of that.

[Jack FFR1846]

To avoid these scams......if/when you are asked for cards of any type for any reason, get on the phone to the person who supposedly is asking for the cards. That single act would have saved the OP all of this grief.

[Leesbro63]

To avoid these scams......if/when you are asked for cards of any type for any reason, get on the phone to the person who supposedly is asking for the cards. That single act would have saved the OP all of this grief.

I totally agree. I feel like quite the moron. My kids are ready to check me into the nursing home. But hey, I've learned harder lessons for much more money.

[Leesbro63]

Half-burnt beats totally burnt. Good job saving what you could. Sorry about the rest.

It sounds as if some of your neighbor's other contacts may have also got hit. If so, I hope she can prevent a recurrence of that.

Yup.

[whodidntante]

They probably resold it already. I think Amazon could still unwind it unless goods have been shipped. You may not reach someone capable of doing that, however.

One suggestion. Post the full text with any personal details removed. That way, the next person who gets the e-mail may happen upon your post via a Google search before they get scammed.

The best tip is not to use Google, but to directly contact people you trust via another method of your choice to verify the request is authentic. Also, do not give out information on others, no matter how harmless it seems. An adversary may use this to scam someone else. This could be how they got you. Con man is short for confidence man.

[deltaneutral83]

I am genuinely curious as to the advent of gift cards in scamming. I think victims get a false sense of security when they hear gift cards as if it's less risky. AMZN for 80% of households is 99% correlated to cash anyhow.

[michaeljc70]

Glad you got some of the money back but how exactly did this happened? Some guy on the internet cannot randomly guess your neighbors nickname. My guess is someone has access to your email and you should change the password immediately. i'd be concerned about other security breaches too.

It could have been someone you know who got this information in person or on social media.

Someone could have had access to your neighbors email and gotten this information also.

[atikovi]

When will folks realize that gifts are for people too lazy to shop for gifts, and not a form of currency.

[GoldenFinch]

They probably resold it already. I think Amazon could still unwind it unless goods have been shipped. You may not reach someone capable of doing that, however.

One suggestion. Post the full text with any personal details removed. That way, the next person who gets the e-mail may happen upon your post via a Google search before they get scammed.

The best tip is not to use Google, but to directly contact people you trust via another method of your choice to verify the request is authentic. Also, do not give out information on others, no matter how harmless it seems. An adversary may use this to scam someone else. This could be how they got you. Con man is short for confidence man.

The key lesson is always confirm verbally that money has been requested. Our work email was hacked and an office worker received an email from her boss, completely legit looking email, that a large sum of money was to be wired to a client. The worker believed the request was from her boss. The only thing that kept her from wiring the money was that she had never done a wire transfer and had to ask someone how to do it. The scam was revealed and we shut off all wire transfer capability with our bank. (We have never wired money anyway.) We were shocked that she was going to wire the money without checking with anyone, but she thought she had been asked to do so and it never occurred to her the email wasn’t legit.

[inverter]

The money is almost certainly lost, but you can try chatting with Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/contact-us

Nope. That link lists the phone number but the automated answering message says they’re too busy to take phone calls due to the COVID emergency. The other option on the link you gave me is to cancel the order. When I go into that, other stuff I ordered CAN be cancelled, but the gift card doesn’t give that option.

Chat with Amazon. I did it yesterday. The link everyone sent is correct.

[atikovi]

The only thing that kept her from wiring the money was that she had never done a wire transfer and had to ask someone how to do it. The scam was revealed and we shut off all wire transfer capability with our bank.

What wire transfer capability did you shut off? Wouldn't she have to go to the bank personally to do a wire transfer anyway?

[galawdawg]

I agree it's not my neighbor's fault and in no way am I going to make her feel that way. It's my own fault. We all get bogus emails and I was dumb enough to fall for it without checking. I blame no one but myself.

Respectfully, have you considered telling Amazon that you are satisfied with the cancellation of the gift card that has not been spent and the recovery of $200 of your $400 loss, and that there is no need for them to bear the loss of the other $200? If they are somehow able to recover the funds, great, but if not, are you hopeful that they will refund you nonetheless?

[student]

OP. You have a wonderful heart trying to help others. Don't get too upset over it. Even though the first gift card has been spent, maybe the products that they ordered have not been shipped yet, and they can stop it. I am also very impressed that you acknowledged that it is not the fault of the credit card company. Please do let us know when Amazon replies to you regarding the first gift card.

[dukeblue219]

Wouldn't she have to go to the bank personally to do a wire transfer anyway?

You can wire money online, at least from BOA and I assume others. I did it on a refi. I think there was a $25 charge. You just have to pick the right option instead of ACH.

[dukeblue219]

Glad you got some of the money back but how exactly did this happened? Some guy on the internet cannot randomly guess your neighbors nickname. My guess is someone has access to your email and you should change the password immediately. i'd be concerned about other security breaches too.

It could have been someone you know who got this information in person or on social media.

Someone could have had access to your neighbors email and gotten this information also.

It's possible someone on the internet could figure it out, perhaps from a message board post that contains both. Lots of ways to tie little bits of info together, although it does take work to personalize an attack like that rather and an email blast to ten million people.

But I agree that someone's email may be exposed (I'd guess the neighbor though) or it's an inside job by a common acquaintance.

[Leesbro63]

Glad you got some of the money back but how exactly did this happened? Some guy on the internet cannot randomly guess your neighbors nickname. My guess is someone has access to your email and you should change the password immediately. i'd be concerned about other security breaches too.

It could have been someone you know who got this information in person or on social media.

Someone could have had access to your neighbors email and gotten this information also.

I will change my password. But the neighbor reports many of her contacts were contacted. The problem is on her end but I get it that it could become mine.

[Leesbro63]

I agree it's not my neighbor's fault and in no way am I going to make her feel that way. It's my own fault. We all get bogus emails and I was dumb enough to fall for it without checking. I blame no one but myself.

Respectfully, have you considered telling Amazon that you are satisfied with the cancellation of the gift card that has not been spent and the recovery of $200 of your $400 loss, and that there is no need for them to bear the loss of the other $200? If they are somehow able to recover the funds, great, but if not, are you hopeful that they will refund you nonetheless?

This is exactly what I will do once they contact me as is supposed to happen. I totally agree that the scammer is the criminal, but this is MY OWN fault for being naive. I do not expect Amazon or Bank of America (credit card) to absorb this. I did call BofA to see if there was some sort of "insurance" benefit on my card for this type of thing. Perhaps Amex has some. But BofA does not. I will not be filing a purchase dispute, because I did, indeed, buy something and got it. I just gave it to a scamster. Perhaps, as some have posted, Amazon can reverse the charge higher up and stop the gift card use, but I'm guessing that whatever was bought was an instantaneous thing and it's "gone money". I've learned lesser lessons for more money. I'll move on.

[GoldenFinch]

The only thing that kept her from wiring the money was that she had never done a wire transfer and had to ask someone how to do it. The scam was revealed and we shut off all wire transfer capability with our bank.

What wire transfer capability did you shut off? Wouldn't she have to go to the bank personally to do a wire transfer anyway?

I have never done one and clearly neither did she, but we asked our bank to not let wire transfers occur from our accounts.

[michaeljc70]

Glad you got some of the money back but how exactly did this happened? Some guy on the internet cannot randomly guess your neighbors nickname. My guess is someone has access to your email and you should change the password immediately. i'd be concerned about other security breaches too.

It could have been someone you know who got this information in person or on social media.

Someone could have had access to your neighbors email and gotten this information also.

I will change my password. But the neighbor reports many of her contacts were contacted. The problem is on her end but I get it that it could become mine.

Okay. I hope your neighbor has taken the proper precautions. If someone can access your email there are a lot of things that can go wrong. People have had their life savings stolen.

[galawdawg]

Glad to hear, sorry that a scammer was able to take advantage of your compassion, glad your loss was relatively minimal.

Unfortunately you aren't alone. I'm a retired District Attorney and once handled a case where one of our Superior Court judges (who had great intelligence and wisdom but was also very compassionate and kind) fell victim to a call purporting to be from an out-of-state bail bondsman who was going to post bond for one of his grandchildren, reportedly in jail in that state. The "bondsman" needed him to send $10,000 via Western Union as the bail bond fee. The caller told the judge that his grandson (and he had the name of one of the judge's adult grandchildren) didn't want his folks to know and asked him not to tell anyone else.

An hour after wiring the money, the judge got suspicious and called his daughter and son-in-law who also live in Georgia. He asked how his grandson was doing and his daughter said "he's fine, he's right here, want to talk to him?" The next call the judge placed was to me and we started a criminal investigation and involved federal authorities. Unfortunately, we were unable to make an arrest but it appeared from our investigation that the perpetrator(s) may have had help from insiders at WU. Eventually our case was one of many that the Department of Justice used to make a criminal and civil ase against Western Union which led to the recovery of $153 million dollars for victims. Over the years, our office was involved in several other interstate and international fraud investigations where arrests were eventually made by federal authorities of widespread and organized fraud rings, many of them overseas. We even saw some funds recovered for victims (although a very tiny percentage).

If you haven't already done so, you may want to file a report with your local law enforcement agency. While the likelihood of an arrest for your particular case is very, very low, it could assist in determining patterns of conduct and end up being a very small component of a more significant case down the road. Who knows...ten years from now you may even get a check from the Dept of Justice for restitution!

Good luck!

[Jags4186]

OP, I feel for you. I too got scammed once many years ago out of a few hundred dollars. Ever since then, I refuse to be the bank for anyone, and I do not participate in any solicitations for donations.

[Leesbro63]

Glad to hear, sorry that a scammer was able to take advantage of your compassion, glad your loss was relatively minimal.

Unfortunately you aren't alone. I'm a retired District Attorney and once handled a case where one of our Superior Court judges (who had great intelligence and wisdom but was also very compassionate and kind) fell victim to a call purporting to be from an out-of-state bail bondsman who was going to post bond for one of his grandchildren, reportedly in jail in that state. The "bondsman" needed him to send $10,000 via Western Union as the bail bond fee. The caller told the judge that his grandson (and he had the name of one of the judge's adult grandchildren) didn't want his folks to know and asked him not to tell anyone else.

An hour after wiring the money, the judge got suspicious and called his daughter and son-in-law who also live in Georgia. He asked how his grandson was doing and his daughter said "he's fine, he's right here, want to talk to him?" The next call the judge placed was to me and we started a criminal investigation and involved federal authorities. Unfortunately, we were unable to make an arrest but it appeared from our investigation that the perpetrator(s) may have had help from insiders at WU. Eventually our case was one of many that the Department of Justice used to make a criminal and civil ase against Western Union which led to the recovery of $153 million dollars for victims. Over the years, our office was involved in several other interstate and international fraud investigations where arrests were eventually made by federal authorities of widespread and organized fraud rings, many of them overseas. We even saw some funds recovered for victims (although a very tiny percentage).

If you haven't already done so, you may want to file a report with your local law enforcement agency. While the likelihood of an arrest for your particular case is very, very low, it could assist in determining patterns of conduct and end up being a very small component of a more significant case down the road. Who knows...ten years from now you may even get a check from the Dept of Justice for restitution!

Good luck!

Good work. No, I'm not gonna report this. It's $200 and the world is upside down right now...too upside down to worry about Leesbro's $200. I get it that reporting MIGHT help someone else. But as I said, the world is just too upside down. I'll change my own passwords and be more careful going forward. Thank you for your work in protecting our system and finding those who scam it.

[Leesbro63]

OP, I feel for you. I too got scammed once many years ago out of a few hundred dollars. Ever since then, I refuse to be the bank for anyone, and I do not participate in any solicitations for donations.

That reminds me of my dad. He used to be in a business where he interacted with many at the bottom of the economic scale who would ask him to borrow money. We're in Pittsburgh, the former home of the well renowned "Mellon Bank". Dad used to tell them "My name is XXXXX, not Mellon".

[atikovi]

Wouldn't she have to go to the bank personally to do a wire transfer anyway?

You can wire money online, at least from BOA and I assume others. I did it on a refi. I think there was a $25 charge. You just have to pick the right option instead of ACH.

The few times I needed to send a wire I had to go into the bank personally. Maybe that has changed.

[Shackleton]

When will folks realize that gifts are for people too lazy to shop for gifts, and not a form of currency.

When will people actually read the thread before they reply with something completely irrelevant?