Rochester woman loses $2,600 in Amazon scam
Jun. 14—A Rochester woman is out more than $2,500 after she fell prey to an Amazon scam.
Rochester police received the report on Saturday, June 12, from a 72-year-old Rochester woman. The woman reported that the day before she received a text message saying it was from Amazon and alerting her that a $2,758.88 purchase had been made on her account. The text gave her a number to call if she had not made that purchase.
The woman called the number an talked to a man who told her he was an Amazon employee and told her to call another number. The woman was told Amazon would reverse the charges on her account, but needed her to assist to help catch the fraudsters.
The woman was instructed to buy gift cards. She remained on the phone with the scammers while she went to Walgreens and purchased $800 worth of Nordstrom's gift cards. The woman was then told to send a photo of the gift cards as well as her driver's license, which she did.
She was then told that Amazon would put $200 into her bank account. When the woman logged on to her Wells Fargo account, it appeared that a $20,000 deposit had been made. The screen then went blank for a second or two. The scammer then told the woman a mistake was made in regard to the amount and as an act of good faith that she would return the money, she needed to buy some Ebay gift cards.
The woman bought $1,800 in gift cards and sent photos of the cards before she realized it had all been a scam. Rochester Police Capt. Casey Moilanen said it is believed that someone may have accessed her computer as well to create a fake Wells Fargo screen.
