JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There’s a scam alert warning from the News4JAX I-TEAM.
A viewer contacted the I-TEAM for help after receiving two text messages that appear to come from Amazon. The I-TEAM did some digging and discovered they’re part of a scam circulating right now in the area.
The first message the viewer received reads: “Shipped: Your card charged $552.67 for SONY Alpha SLT-A55 DSLR Camera.” It then lists what appears to be an order number from Amazon and it gives a phone number to call to cancel the order and get a refund.
The next day, the same woman received a similar text message from what looks like Amazon. Only this time, it said: “Alert! Your card has been charged with $763.00 on AMZ for order id #MFHG38Z Dyson Tower TP03 Air Purifier.” And then another number is given to call if the order is wrong.
The I-TEAM called Tom Stephens, president of the Better Business Bureau of Northeast Florida. He says this is definitely a scam that started circulating about a year ago. He says the scammers are after your credit card number and you should not call the number listed in the text because the scammers can be very convincing and are good at tricking people into answering questions that can give the bad guys personal information.
He says sometimes these kinds of scams involve a link that is attached to the text message, so beware of that too and do not open the link. That will give the scammers access to your phone so they can install some type of malware to get your personal information or banking information.
The viewer who alerted us says she was never charged for the fake Amazon orders but wanted to know how to stop from receiving the text messages.
We asked the Better Business Bureau about that too. Stephens says the only way to stop the messages is to block the number.
How do you do that? Once you open the text, on an Apple iPhone, click the arrow at the top next to the number that sent you the text. You’ll see icons for “call” and “info.” Hit the “info” icon. That will take you to the screen that asks you if you want to message or call the person, or share or create a contact. You want to select the option at the bottom in red that says: “Block this Caller.” It means, if anyone calls you from that number again, it will not come through.
Again, if you receive a text telling you that your card has been charged for an Amazon purchase, do not respond and delete it.
You can always check your order history under your Amazon account to verify any orders.