Amazon account hijacked

And then tried to redo it and it didn’t go through again

A couple of years ago, somebody managed to get into my Amazon account and order things that were sent to our house. Very odd. Maybe they were testing to see if they could get away with ordering stuff, but why would they alert me that they had access to my account?

@MaineLonghorn that reminds me of a few years ago when someone filed a state tax return “on my behalf” and had the refund sent to my house :expressionless:

I had the same thing happen about 14 months ago. Amazon was a pain to work with, but we luckily had the hacker’s e-mail address.

We caught it quickly and haven’t seen any ill effects. I also couldn’t figure out what they wanted. Perhaps watch some prime videos?

I spent the rest of the day putting in place 2 factor authorization on EVERYTHING. :slight_smile:

The most disappointing aspect of this experience, was Amazon. I got more angry at my rep than the hacker. They really need to put in place a better system to handle these cases.

The two factor authorization is what caused my kid’s problem when T mobile was porting numbers for funsies, Make sure you have that pin set up. T mobile was horrible to deal with. Luckily the banks were better.

I read an account of an Amazon account hijacking where the rep froze the account right away, but we have talked to 2 reps neither of whom was inclined to help us and referred to some mythical other department that is supposed to do something, but 48 hours in, all they seem to have done is to email our hacker.

As for the mobile phone pin — I don’t think that’s enough security since it depends on the employee remembering to ask for it.

This is trivial in the grand scheme of things, but last weekend I was doing work on my computer when I got an email from Dominos Pizza thanking me for “my” online order – for pickup at a store in Georgia (I’m in California). Someone hacked into my Dominos account, used REWARDS points to order a medium pie, and then used my stored credit card to buy a $3 soft drink. I mean, what the heck?! Apparently this type of hacking is so easy, and untraceable, people are doing it just to get a free lunch. Credit card company said it was unlikely the hacker could see the credit card number to use it for other purchases, but we canceled the card anyway.

I’m going to check our mobile phones now to make sure we have a PIN . . . that’s scary.

Change cell companies? I’ve been with Virgin Mobile or Metro by TMobile over the past 10 or so years and both require my PIN to do anything.

They’re expected to ask for the pin. Verizon asks me.

I think what OP experienced is “hit and run.” See if you can crack an account, use the cc on file, order something. Like pickpockets who use a card at some establishment before you report the loss, then toss the card.

My personal info is on file at so many places (and even banks can get hacked,) that I worry first about protecting the card, not identity theft (in this specific situation.)

@lookingforward Does your card make you pay anything if you are a fraud victim?

@OHMomof2

Our credit card does not ask us to pay anything for a fraud issue. What do you mean? They also don’t make us pay any of the charges the hacker makes. They don’t charge us to close our account and set up a new one.

I was asking because you said “protecting the card” was your first worry. @thumper1

For me, my identity info is a much greater concern than my card.

I tend to avoid using stored credit cards as a payment option on websites for this reason. For Amazon, I have an Amazon store card – so that is the only payment option. If that was hacker or abused in anyway – it wouldn’t impact a card that I use anywhere else. If I have to cancel a card as a result of a hack, at least it’s only one case.

It’s a minor inconvenience to have to continue to reenter card data on various websites, but less of an inconvenience than having to cancel a card because of a site hack at one merchant.

No, my card does not charge me for reporting fraud. I said most worried about the card, “in this specific situation,” because of the possible threat of large charges. I don’t think Amazon has the wealth of info on me that, say, a mortgage company would.

And yes, I could report fraud, get charges reversed, but what a mess. And not an immediate resolution.

So far, we’re not aware that anything was ordered from the account. But as DH isn’t sure what cards were on the account, and Amazon is completely ignoring our requests to freeze it, I guess we’ll have to wait to see if we get a surprise bill.

“It’s a minor inconvenience to have to continue to reenter card data on various websites, but less of an inconvenience than having to cancel a card because of a site hack at one merchant.”

Agree! I memorized my cc number for that particular reason. Comes in handy when I want to buy something but my card is out of reach. :slight_smile:

Actually I store my credit cards in a password manager— I use different cards to maximize rebates. But some sites seem to store the information without permission, and I believe Amazon stores the address and phone of anyone you ship to.

Someone used my CC to buy airline tickets once. Now, I have alerts for all CC charges when the actual card is not present.

I have a Capital One app on my phone and a notification shows up every time a charge is made. Means it’s hard for DH to surprise me!

We have Capital One and choose to get notifications every time there’s an international transaction. Most of our breaches have resulted in international transactions so that helps.