Once upon a time, not so long ago in 2003, I was conned by an independent seller through Amazon.com. She fleeced me out of 40 smackeroos, and as I later discovered, she'd also fleeced many other trusting customers of Amazon.com. She's now gone from the site, possibly banned, one hopes. Unfortunately, she's probably pulling the same con at some other online shopping site.

Let's fast forward to today, to this morning around 10:30. To when I logged on and had a figurative heart attack after opening a certain email. The "From:" tagline identified the sender as the Billing Dept. from Amazon: [email protected]. Since I've recently been ordering and receiving items from the online superstore in the last several months, I naturally felt immediate concern and worried there was some problem with the payment of one of my most recent orders. But I knew there shouldn't have been, 'cause I've monitored my bank account closely these last few months to make sure I don't go over into the red. And I haven't. After reading hastily through the disturbing email, which basically informed me that my bank had contacted the site regarding some changes to my credit/debit card and it (Amazon) was concerned someone has accessed my customer account. There was going to be an investigation into the matter and Amazon needed me to confirm my identity. Within the letter was a link I was supposed to click on, which would take me to a page that would help confirm my identity.

I clicked on it and got a "Page could not be found" window. I hit Refresh twice to see if that would bring it up, but each time I received the same message. So I went back to the email and copied it (the link I mean), thinking that because it was a two-liner that was the problem. It wasn't. I got an error page on Amazon.com this time, saying there was no such page on the site. Suspicious now, I went to another window and brought up Amazon.com. I searched the main site till I found the help section link at the bottom of zee page. I browsed through that, finding the sub-section for fraudulent or "phishy" emails and read the tips on how to recognize a phony email and what to do if you get one. Of course, I went back to the window with the email I was now almost positive was a phisher and did as directed by Amazon. It looked truly authentic, with only two tell-tale signs out of the seven or so listed by the online store. I only spotted them because I now knew what to look for. If that link had worked when I clicked on it...I wouldn't have been suspicious...until it was too late. What clinched it for me was the site's assurance it will never ask for its customers to verify or confirm their accounts--and that's exactly what I'd been asked to do. The second sign, adding more evidence to the fact someone was trying to scam me, was the true url, which was discovered in the status bar when I rolled my mouse's arrow over the link, once again at the direction of Amazon.com. It wasn't a true Amazon link, for it had .ppcc or something like it after the .com.

Someone had run a pretty near convincing scam--and I almost fell for it. Thank goodness the link failed to work. I was saved this time.

I reported and forwarded the phishy email to the site and there should be an investigation into the matter. I really like Amazon.com and have enjoyed my association with it over the years. Its prices are reasonable, I've been able to find nearly everything I've searched for on the site and been more than satisfied--with the exception of the above incident in '03--with its services. As I told the customer service in my report, I hope to continue on as a customer.

I'm learning and getting smarter about online scams. I just hope if there's a next time, I can catch the con again before I fall for it.

moon phase