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A Hudson Valley woman said that she received a call last week that was a recording from “Amazon” claiming that her account had been used to make a $760 purchase of a laptop.
The woman, who resides in Dutchess County, was instructed to press “1” to approve, or “2” to dispute the alleged purchase.
After pressing “2,” the woman said that a man came on the phone saying that a laptop had been purchased and was being delivered to an address in Albany, claiming that he had sent a code to her phone to approve the purchase.
When prompted for the number that was used to send the code, the scammer said that due to security concerns he could not provide that information, and that it was not the same number she was calling from. The scammer then requested a verified home and email address from the woman.
“I said those were incorrect and he said it was obvious that someone had hacked into my phone and computer and they were listening and following everything I did on the devices,” the woman said. “He asked that I provide him with a phone number for my bank and he would conference them in to dispute the charge.
“When I said I would call myself he said it was important that I not make the call directly as my phone was hacked and they would hear everything.”
After being rebuffed, the scammer said that he would hang up as soon as the bank got on the line so he wouldn’t hear anything to “safeguard privacy.” The fraudster then attempted to intimidate the woman before growing frustrated and hanging up.
The woman proceeded to contact Amazon, who said that it is a common scam that has cropped up over the last several weeks, and that she was the seventh call on that day for that particular customer service representative.
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