This one is embarrassing, but it's important enough that I am not only posting, I modified the Blog Post content type and added a 3rd place to put a new category of posts. I suppose I could have called the new category Security or Operations, but for the moment, I just want a catch all. I had not seen or heard about this particular scam. And, one of my tag lines is "don't talk to strangers.
I received a call on my cell phone. It's not clear why I answered it, but likely the fact that it was an incoming call from an 800 number was enough to cause some interest.
There was a recorded message that someone had tried to purchase an iPhone 11 on my Amazon account for $799. I don't know the current price of an iPhone 11 or even if there is such an animal yet, but $799 was enough to cause a mild panic. I pressed one as instructed.
Strangely, I was immediately connected to a human voice (if these vermin can actually be considered human). The person at the other end professed to be an Amazon agent and instructed me to go to my Amazon account and verify a credit card to assure that I actually had the card.
I was then instructed to purchase a $50 PlayStation gift card so Amazon could secure my account. Until this point I had not been asked to give the caller the credit card information, a password or anything that would set off an alarm. Everything was done on my Amazon account. Now he asked for the gift card's digital code. I should have realized when he asked for the gift card code that I was out $50. I still hadn't recovered from my initial panic. I had already given him the code when I realized what I had done.
Not content with the $50, the "agent" then advised me to do the same thing with my phone - for a $20 gift card. That's when the bells went off, maybe because I never order anything using my phone.
A call to the bank, basically resulted in "tough nuggies" you fell for it. Try to cancel the order with Amazon.
A chat session with Amazon didn't bear any better fruit. Amazon told me that digital purchases are not refundable, but I would receive an email within 48 hours from their fraud department advising me if they could help.
As embarrassing as this is I would hate to see someone else caught by this scam. I need to follow my own advice and not talk to strangers.