Amazon.com customer identity theft

Amazon.com customer identity theft

As I was balancing the check book, early this December, 2004, I noticed a charge from our debit card For Amz* Superstore - Amazon.com in the amount of $94.56. Since I hadn't purchased anything in months from them, my immediate thought was that my husband had purchased a Christmas present for me from them. Curious enough not to wait until Christmas, I logged on to our account at amazon.com only to find out that there was no outstanding order for anything and that neither of us had ordered anything since August. We e-mailed Amazon.com to request a reversal of the charge, given the fact that there was no purchase order.

They frankly agreed that nothing was ordered in our name, but only stated that they would investigate the matter. Several e-mails, phone calls and three weeks later, their investigation concluded that yup! we never ordered anything from them. That's it! Meanwhile, the money was still missing from our bank account and in Amazon.com's pocket. In the end, we took it up with VISA and our bank to refund our money. Did I mention that Amazon.com still had our money? I did, didn't I? To make a long story short, We had to go through the nightmare of closing out our bank account, re-opening another one and having new cards re-issued after signing notarized documents and affidavits. It felt as though we were criminals.

Upon doing my own investigation, I discovered that there was a plethora of amazon.com customers who were scammed in the same matter:

View another story just like mine on this website www.complaints.com by Dr. Gary Walton.

Also: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5158208

http://www.cardcops.com/msnbc/msnbc2.htm

Why should Amazon.com do anything to stop this? Products are getting purchased, and so they are making money. They don't have to refund for unauthorized purchases. It's not their fault, right? How about warning their customers that someone's hacked into their system and is stealing information. How about just a simple disclaimer warning their customers not to save credit card information in their Amazon.com profile? Why haven't these thieves been caught yet?

Have they investigated the people that manage their secure information? Why hasn't Amazon.com been helping the Feds through all this? Why haven't they enacted a "smart card program" to secure their customer information? They don't even have the decency to tell you that they won't refund any part of your money for their lack of security. You have to figure that out yourself when you get tired of waiting for their response. This is the same company that was going bankrupt a few years ago, before this identity theft scam started. But, of course, they're only victims, just like us.

A bit of advise:

Delete your personal credit card info. from the website.

Post a complaint. Even after you've gotten your refund from your credit card company, don't sit back and let it happen to someone else.

Monitor your credit cards for fraud: www.cardcops.com

Let me know your story by responding to this e-mail. If we find a common denominator we can stop this fraud.

Rita Rita N

Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: Email User Consumer

Comment On This

I believe this goes a bit farther then stolen credit number. I believe amazon.com may also be illegally aquairing personal information through some type of spy software. I use to be a seller on amazon.com, and whenever a customer filed a complaint (A-Z Claim so on...) amazon immediately took the money from our account. So if the seller does not receive the money and have alreadyy shipped the item, and the buyer files a complaint with amazon. Where is the money going? Is amazon keeping it away from the buyer and the seller?

I hate the fact that large corperate online retailer such as amazom.com can get away with things like this.

I really believe they are braking federal laws. I think that they should be legally and criminally charged with braking privacy laws.

As a seller I was selling over $20,000 per month and one day I got a message from amazon saying they have perminently closed down my account without real proof of why. They also held over $10,000 from me for over 6 months. In the mean time I had to pay for merchendise that put me in major debt. I filed complaints with the FTC and the BBB, both agencys are completely worthless and only protect the businesses.

Hopefully complaint.com really halps the consumer.

Consumers are what controlls the global economy, and we should not let corporate giants take advantage of us. Not that I am againt large corporations, because I am not. I just think that they should have to play by the same rules as everyone else.