Consumers Warned as Amazon, Vaccine Feedback Phone Scams Spike

Be careful when you answer that incoming call — consumer watchdogs are warning about two new pandemic-era scams that are trying to make people part with their money.

One of the latest scams sees people getting “relentless” phone calls from a robocall purporting to be from Amazon, WSAW-TV reported.

The call recording tells consumers there has been a fraudulent or suspicious charge on their Amazon account, and directs them to press a number to connect with an “Amazon customer care representative” to dispute the charge. 

In Wisconsin, Amazon scams moved into the top three complaints to the Consumer Protection Hotline for the month of March, WSAW-TV reported.

The latest phone scam comes as shopping increasingly moves online due to the pandemic.

Wisconsin Division of Consumer Protection spokesperson Lara Sutherlin said the division was also seeing more scams around fake Amazon purchases.  

“Amazon is essential to everyone’s life, these days it seems,” she said. But she said if you are concerned about fraudulent charges on your Amazon account, you should find the correct number to call yourself.

“By no means should you respond to the number they give you. It’s a scam, and Amazon is not going to leave you a phone number like that.”

She also warned consumers to look out for scammers trying to take advantage of the vaccination rollout. She said people were calling consumers representing that they were from Pfizer, Moderna or Astra-Zeneca, and trying to get them to take a post vaccine survey for a reward.

When it comes to the award, the consumer is asked to pay money for shipping. “There’s no money that should be involved for surveys related to the vaccine or to get on a list, so anytime there’s money involved, a credit card, a gift card – that is a scam,” Sutherlin told WSAW-TV.

It is annoying to receive unwanted phone calls and text messages. But it can also be against the law.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was enacted in 1991 to protect consumers from annoying telemarketers and other types of solicitors. The TCPA restricts certain types of calls and other communications to consumers, and consumers whose rights under the TCPA are violated may be able to collect between $500 and $1,500 per call or text message.

If you received a telemarketing call, a prerecorded message, or a text message from a company and you did NOT provide that company consent to do so, you may have a claim against that company for violating the TCPA. 

Attorneys are prepared to investigate your case and see if you have a claim. Click here for details. 

Meanwhile, in an increasingly digital society more opportunities have been discovered by scammers to take advantage of people who are scared, confused and being bombarded with new and changing information from public and private providers. Here’s five COVID-19 scams to watch out for.

Have you been targeted by phone scammers in the past year? Let us know in the comments!

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