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Scams and fraud

Unusual Amazon Prime Scam

(3 Posts)
biglouis Mon 30-Oct-23 22:45:31

My nephew was watching films when he came across several which AZ said he had "bought" but did not recognise them. Someone had logged in using his account details and purchased them because there is a cc att5ached to the account.

This is how he believes it happened.

He had given away several outdated devices when he updated his tech - the likes of set top boxes - to a mate. When the mate fell on hard times he took one to cash converters (a sort of modern day pawnshop). The shop are supposed to wipe the hard disk of any devices they buy in but clearly they didnt this time. Someone who purchased the box then found they could log into nephew's account and hire or buy films. We know it wasnt the mate because they are family films and cartoons - mate is a single guy and a gamer.

So the person who bought the box was well aware that they were stealing from a third party. The total stolen is only in the region of £20 but it could obviously have been a lot more.

Apparently AZ keeps a list of "authorized devices" for each account. If you pass on a device and dont delete it from the list in your account other people who get hold of it - whether honestly or dishonestly - can use it. Nephew has now deleted all old devices from his account and is going to check my account tomorrow as I have given away at least one old box.

The boxes can still be legitimately used once sold on in this manner but obviously the new owner will need to set up and pay for their own account. Nephew has now initiated 2 stage authentification (which sends an OTP to his phone) so the thief is going to get a shock next time s/he tries to log in or buy anything. hahaha

Hetty58 Mon 30-Oct-23 22:54:11

It's easier to delete a Prime account, then set up a new one (rather than delete all connected devices).

biglouis Tue 31-Oct-23 08:31:48

I will leave this for nephew as he knows what hes doing. He builds computers and websites for a living. Surprised he got caught out by this! Apparently he could see the location of the person who stole from him - it was in Sunderland. Would love to be a fly on the wall when the cheeky bugger tries to log into Az.