Amazon phone scam?

Sulley75 · 10-03-2008, 6:19 PM

Hi guy n gals,

Ok, my wife just received a call from someone claiming to work for Amazon Marketing. They said she had won a 2 week holiday in Cyprus and that we needed to drive to Kent to pick up the tickets. My wife was unsure so she passed to phone over to me. When i spoke to the lady, she said either my wife or me had answered a brief survey over the phone on the 29th Feb this year. Neither of us recall this. We put this to the lady and thats when she started getting "not so nice". She started getting a bit aggitated when i was saying it sounds like a scam. We argued for a bit and then i just said we will miss out on the holiday. She then said " thats your loss mate, in fact i dont wanna give you the holiday now anyway, bye!"

I have googled this and cant find any reports on it. Bit worrying tho, especially ewhen you hear of these people who get you out of your house then burgle you.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Sky.

dhali2105 · 10-03-2008, 6:24 PM

pretty strange tbh. never heard of anything like that. i wonder why they wanted you to go to kent. surely no one can be that stupid to actually go.
good job you had a go at her. make her think twice about doing it again

y2k · 10-03-2008, 6:27 PM

I would have said to them that we will see you there then ring amazon and see if it is a scam, if it was you could have arranged for the police to pick up your tickets.

eric pisch · 10-03-2008, 6:30 PM

check with amazon then let the police know, they can at least trace the call, it needs to be logged so they can build up a profile

unless of course it was the police, the american police do this alot to catch people on warrant etc

are you a drug runner?

Sulley75 · 10-03-2008, 6:42 PM

That'll be a negative Eric!!

I called the Police just for advice. They said to call Amazon in the morning and ask if they are running any sort of competition like this. If not call the Police again.

The woman who called said that my wife had said Cyprus was where she had always wanted to go. My wife said she doesnt even know where Cyprus is!!!!

Cheers people.

Gaz.

njp · 10-03-2008, 6:52 PM

Sounds like a fairly straightforward scam to entice you to a high-pressure sales meeting where you be skilfully separated from your money.

Otherwise they could have sent you your tickets in the post. The real Amazon are quite adept at using the postal system!

frankmsl · 10-03-2008, 6:56 PM

skydive, this sounds indeed like a scam. A quite well known scam is to offer people a free holiday, concvert tickets etc.. anything to get them out of the house. While the person is away the House gets burgled.

It seems unlikely that any employee of Amazon or a genuine Call Centre would get this agitated. Typically these calls are (randomly) recorded and an employee being 'smart' to a client would receive a sanction or could get fired. It all sounds dody and I think you did the right thing.

PS Cyprus is a really nice to place to visit for a holiday.

JayCee · 10-03-2008, 7:25 PM

The drive to Kent was probably to view a Holiday Home Ownership (Timeshare) presentation.

kentish_lad · 10-03-2008, 8:00 PM

The wifes brother 'won' a holiday and arrived at the local hotel (we live in kent) to pick the tickets up just for a laugh.

'Here are your tickets sir' says the rep, 'departs from Glasgow at 6.30am' thats 500 miles away says he, ' we can offer you an upgrade to a more local airport and when you reach the other side we can offer another upgrade because the hotel is 4 hrs from the airport plus you may want to upgrade the hotel' she smiles, BIL says ok how much are the total upgrades, with a bigger smile she says £2000

wellladida · 10-03-2008, 8:56 PM

with such agreat postal service why would amazon want you to pick up the tickets

dhali2105 · 10-03-2008, 9:58 PM

excuse my stupidity.
but how do they find out your home telephone number and also where you live

.
and how can they confirm youve actually gone to kent to pick them up??

Abbeygoo · 10-03-2008, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric pisch

check with amazon then let the police know, they can at least trace the call, it needs to be logged so they can build up a profile

unless of course it was the police, the american police do this alot to catch people on warrant etc

are you a drug runner?

Like at the beginning of Sea Of Love ..... did she sound like Al Pacino?

01-10-2008, 11:16 AM

Hi - received a similar call myself firstly to do a survey then to say I had won a holiday. They said I needed to attend a local presentation to get more details on the holiday, but turns out it was to try and sell me a River Thames cruiser which would give me access to loads of cheap holidays. (yeah really!!) Needless to say I didn't take them up on their offer but I don't believe they are anything to do with Amazon.com even though they are called Amazon Marketing. There is another blog site for people who have brought timeshares and the like from these people. Next time I think I will say I will go but just not turn up and waste their time not just mine.

01-10-2008, 11:16 AM	#13
bigcynic Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Amazon phone scam? Hi - received a similar call myself firstly to do a survey then to say I had won a holiday. They said I needed to attend a local presentation to get more details on the holiday, but turns out it was to try and sell me a River Thames cruiser which would give me access to loads of cheap holidays. (yeah really!!) Needless to say I didn't take them up on their offer but I don't believe they are anything to do with Amazon.com even though they are called Amazon Marketing. There is another blog site for people who have brought timeshares and the like from these people. Next time I think I will say I will go but just not turn up and waste their time not just mine.
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