
Amazon is sending me packages I didn't buy - CameronBanga
https://amazonplzstop.com/2019/11/the-beginning/
======
nathanaldensr
I had a similar experience quite some time ago. Somehow small AWS charges were
appearing on my credit card--on the order of around a dollar. I called Amazon
and asked them where the charges were coming from _and they wouldn 't tell
me_. I had no personal AWS account nor had I ever used the card with AWS. They
refused to provide me any level of assistance. It was very frustrating. This
meant every month my wife had to request a chargeback through the credit card
company.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Did you cancel the card and replace it to prevent further charges?

~~~
reaperducer
This doesn't always work. I had a similar problem with Chase, and the charges
kept appearing on the new card. Chase explained to me that the charges can
follow the person, not the specific card number.

~~~
CodeMage
> _Chase explained to me that the charges can follow the person, not the
> specific card number._

Can anyone explain this? It goes against all I thought I knew about online
payments and credit cards.

~~~
snarf21
It works like this. Chase is trying to be _helpful_ so let's say you set up
your utility bill to go through their credit card. Now, you get a new card
with Chase because you lost it. Chase can see that the old number and new
number are both attached to your account history _and_ the charge from the
utility company has the same utility account number so they happily approve it
for you so you don't have to change your utility billing. It isn't such an
awful feature except in this case where you want it stopped. This is one
argument for not using credit cards for recurring online bills and ACH
instead. Most people love the rewards though.

We need better online payments options that prevent these scams. It would be
nice to have the ability to whitelist and blacklist online vendors.

~~~
imtringued
> It would be nice to have the ability to whitelist and blacklist online
> vendors.

Isn't that basically a direct debit mandate?

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lnanek2
I went through something similar when an ex went wild with my credit cards.
You can actually call the credit card company and tell them to block all
purchases from a specified merchant. So I had to block all Amazon and Uber
purchases.

Just reporting the card lost/stolen doesn't work because these services
already verified and seem to come across as recurring transactions that still
go through even though the old card has been reported lost and there's a new
number.

~~~
kangnkodos
Wait. I'm missing something important here.

Are you saying that after Amazon verifies your credit card once, a scammer can
keep making purchases on your card after you report it stolen to your credit
card company?

This is news to me.

How long can Amazon do that? The end of the day? The end of the month? What
eventually stops Amazon from accepting a card which has been reported stolen,
and how long does the process take?

But blocking one specific company such as Amazon works faster? Why is that?

I guess at the end of the month, you can dispute the purchases.

~~~
lovehashbrowns
It's a feature on credit cards. Merchants in good standing can get updates on
your new credit card. This should keep failed transactions to a minimum; for
example, your electricity bill won't bounce if you got a new credit card and
forgot to update your billing info.

What Amazon should be doing is letting you cancel an Amazon account if you
know what credit card information it's using, like the author of this blog
tried to do. The flaw is if your credit card info is leaked and someone
cancels your Amazon account. But I see that as vastly superior to just having
a random unauthorized Amazon account somewhere out there with your leaked
credit card info in it making unauthorized purchases.

~~~
tzs
> What Amazon should be doing is letting you cancel an Amazon account if you
> know what credit card information it's using, like the author of this blog
> tried to do.

As you note, this has a flaw:

> The flaw is if your credit card info is leaked and someone cancels your
> Amazon account. But I see that as vastly superior to just having a random
> unauthorized Amazon account somewhere out there with your leaked credit card
> info in it making unauthorized purchases.

I don't see why it needs to be all or nothing. Just remove that credit card
from the account, and block it from being added back. That lets you stop
someone who has your card on their account, without opening you up to having
your Amazon account canceled if someone gets your leaked info and wants to be
a jerk.

~~~
lovehashbrowns
That solution is still better than what Amazon is currently doing, and I do
like it. My reasoning is that an account being accused of fraud shouldn't be
left open. But I suppose a fraudster isn't inconvenienced by having to create
a new Amazon account and continuing their fraud there.

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fabiandesimone
This is a known scam:

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/clark.com/shopping-
retail/amazo...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/clark.com/shopping-
retail/amazon-scam-brushing-warning-deliveries-you-didnt-order/amp/)

~~~
Someone1234
This isn't that. In the thread's article the author said someone stole their
identity and used their credit card to order these things from an Amazon
account they don't control. That isn't what your link describes.

~~~
tabtab
They could be shipping stuff to jack up sales numbers in the short term. It
could be an incentives program gone rogue.

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dredmorbius
NB: a web page per paragraph-or-so of text is ... pretty annoying.

Please don't.

~~~
beatgammit
I stopped reading after three pages. The story was interesting, but I'm not
going to keep clicking on links every 30 seconds or whatever.

~~~
wruza
Also, the entire site seems to be dedicated to this single article. Very
strange format.

~~~
dredmorbius
As a series of updates over days/weeks, I could understand. Where a single
day's events span multiple posts, not.

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MisterOctober
Heavily reminds me of the episode "Autofac" from television series "Electric
Dreams," a major plot device of which is megacorp [in the show, obviously a
satirical take on Amazon] delivering unwanted packages to the [apparent] last
survivors of post-cataclysmic humanity

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bluetidepro
After the Amazon rep said "Amazon: This account has your information in it.",
he never just tries to tell Amazon his number to see if that IS what is on the
other account. Seems so odd to me. But regardless, as others have mentioned
already, why would you not just cancel everything to get it sorted out like
any other fraud that would happen?

~~~
alanbernstein
He says he did cancel his card. I guess you're saying he should cancel his
Amazon account? That's a bit of a drastic step, so I can understand not
jumping to it immediately.

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throwmeaway35
This is an interesting story, a cyber disfunctional Griffin and Sabine? Are
these affiliate links to the strange products author was sent? Is this short
format to drive page views of the “stop Amazon” site? Are we being played by
the author?

Edit: The about section of the site gives some insight.

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corobo
This could probably have been on one page for easier reading

~~~
dudul
I also don't really understand the point of the multiple pages layout.

~~~
pxtail
At first it was annoying to me as well but then I thought that it is actually
quite clever - nowadays people are conditioned to read few sentences and then
take a break, tap, scroll,click something. Single article could be too much of
cognitive load if this is meant to reach broad audience...

~~~
beatgammit
Well, multiple pages was too much for me to bother clicking through, so I
stopped reading. It's really annoying, and I hope this doesn't become a thing.

------
cool-RR
Aside: I bet the people who use these avantgarde fonts on their blogs feel so
classy, but they make the text so hard to read on mobile, even with text size
enlarged. I wish there was an instant "turn all fonts to your favorite font"
button on mobile browsers.

~~~
sujNansnam
Safari’s reader mode works well in this case.

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pmarreck
The article/blog post simply stops after a certain point? I feel a bit left
hanging

~~~
QuercusMax
Last post is from Friday, Nov 15, 2019. Seems like the story isn't over.

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lukifer
I've had this happen three times now, all with products I would be very
unlikely to buy. After confirming that I was not charged for any of the three
instances, I took the path of least resistance and donated the items (none of
which were expensive) to a thrift store.

(The speculation I've read is that some manufacturers will buy their own
products and send them to random addresses, in order to create fake reviews.)

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ben_utzer
Isn't this maybe some sort of affiliate marketing trick?

How's the SEO for this url going?

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Jaruzel
Simple. Do a one-month amazon embargo on yourself, and tell your reception to
refuse delivery on any amazon parcel with your name on it. Hopefully Amazons
processes will flag the buying account as having a false address.

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faissaloo
I'm currently being told I've received certain packages when I've actually
received other packages I ordered. Amazon is really weird.

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Finnucane
I just never let online merchants store my card number if I don't really have
to. I'm totally okay with having to enter it for every purchase if it means I
can avoid stuff like this.

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failrate
In my experience, this stopped after I stopped drinking and made sure my wife
is the only one who can access our Amazon account.

~~~
GoForthAssemble
I did the opposite. I started drinking after getting the bills and now don't
care when the wife shouts at me for having no access.

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binarymax
Why not just cancel the card number and have the credit card issue a new one?
Then change your passwords everywhere?

This would have solved this problem at step 1 when Amazon said they couldn't
cancel the account.

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Anechoic
"Needless to say I canceled my credit card and got a new one."

"In the past 24-hours I did a deep dive into my Amazon account and changed
many passwords."

~~~
binarymax
I did not see this line in the report. Thanks. Still wondering what else can
be done. If a credit card reissue doesn't solve the problem, I'd take that up
with the issuer immediately.

