Amazon Fraud/Scam - Anyone else been through this?

[bear214]

Short version; My amazon account was compromised in a peculiar way in 2021. Looking for others who’ve been through the same/similar thing(s) and as much info as possible to look into/take it further.

Back in 2021, my amazon account was compromised. However, no money was lost and no items were bought using it, no passwords, emails or information was changed. I have 2FA and my account has no bank details on it. Reviews, questions asked, answers given and ‘helpful’ or ‘inappropriate’ votes given to reviews instead were posted from my account, as well as items viewed. Amazon was made aware on several occasions and took no action. I requested a data package (contained all interactions from my account) and there was zero trace of anything happening. The only thing that stood out was an IP address which did not belong to me. (This is also not due to dynamic IP address). Since this happened, myself and my partner have been researching similar cases or instances, looking to take it further.

We’re currently looking to see if anyone else has been affected by similar/same issues as listed briefly above. The key points are also below;

• Account used to post fake reviews
• Account used to post and answer questions
• Account used to vote on reviews
• No detail change
• No items bought or random items received
• No monetary impact (no money loss)
• Unknown IP address within data package

Please note; what has happened isn’t a brushing scam or anything similar. As far as we’re aware, there isn’t exactly a name for it. We also do not believe I am the only one who’s been affected and have spotted several other posts with the same theme, dating as far back as at least 4 years.


Also happy to answer any questions if any of this sounds a bit jargony or if anyone wants to know more.

 

[jurassicmark]

Firstly, it doesn't sound like a fraud/scam as no fraud/scam has yet taken place. Not sure about the posting/answering questions bit but fake reviews are quite a big thing so someone could have hacked your account purely for that purpose.

I have some questions:

1. Was 2FA active when the fake reviews were posted? I'd be very surprised if someone managed to get access to your account with 2FA enabled.
2. Do you ever use a VPN? If so then that could account for the unknown IP address.
3. Have you changed your account password since you became aware of this issue and if so, has the issue persisted after that?

 

[hippo99]

Reminds me of this thread

Fake Amazon reviews being posted under my account

About 11 days ago I had a few emails from Amazon Reviews thanking me for reviewing some products. Tat items that I never purchased or reviewed. I was concerned that my account was compromised and changed my password, enabled 2FA and deleted the reviews. I thought that would be the end of it but...

www.avforums.com

 

[bear214]

Firstly, it doesn't sound like a fraud/scam as no fraud/scam has yet taken place. Not sure about the posting/answering questions bit but fake reviews are quite a big thing so someone could have hacked your account purely for that purpose.

I have some questions:

1. Was 2FA active when the fake reviews were posted? I'd be very surprised if someone managed to get access to your account with 2FA enabled.
2. Do you ever use a VPN? If so then that could account for the unknown IP address.
3. Have you changed your account password since you became aware of this issue and if so, has the issue persisted after that?

It's a weird one; fraud/scam on my end no because there's no monetary loss to myself, however, there can be a financial gain for the person doing it via deception. I'm aware that fake reviews are a huge issue on Amazon

1. I did not however I did have emails set up to notify me of any login attempts. During the incidents, none pinged. I also double-checked and none of them went through as they were not confirmed to be myself.
2. I used a VPN years ago, however not any time during this incident. The unknown IP address appears once and it also lines up with other activities we saw (without going into to much detail).
3. I changed my password a few times during this to no avail; however as stated, there were no login attempts triggered via email and no other connected devices besides my own. I've had nothing since a few days before I set up 2FA, but I have had an incident where the 2FA didn't even trigger since. None of my devices are set to trusted devices to make sure nothing is piggybacking off a device.

From the stories I've seen online, 2FA hasn't always stopped it. In my case, things stopped but we are unsure whether this is due to 2FA or not. (The 2FA is from an external trusted app which is also passcode protected). As also stated, besides the IP we saw within the data file, there is no trace of any other activity on my account. No email change, no password change either.

 

[bear214]

Reminds me of this thread

Fake Amazon reviews being posted under my account

About 11 days ago I had a few emails from Amazon Reviews thanking me for reviewing some products. Tat items that I never purchased or reviewed. I was concerned that my account was compromised and changed my password, enabled 2FA and deleted the reviews. I thought that would be the end of it but...

www.avforums.com

I saw that a few days ago actually. There are a few across the internet dating back a few years from what we've seen so far, all with the same theme. From what we have noticed looking into things independently, there's likely to be a fair amount of people it's happened to who've either not noticed (if emails have gone into the void or they've assumed its spam/fake emails) or just not posted anything about it online.