Amazon Pay. Beware.

[Dogman]

Yesterday I had an "interesting" experience.

I ordered some printing paper from ITSupplies, formerly known as Atlex. It's a source for printers, inks, papers, etc., that I've used many times in the past. At checkout I was offered the usual options to pay, including Amazon Pay. I was not familiar with this service. It allows you to use your Amazon account to provide pay information to a non-Amazon site. Since Amazon's credit card information is encrypted, it seemed safe and convenient so I chose to use it.

A few hours later I checked my email and I had one email from Amazon with a verification code to reset my password and two emails from Amazon Mexico. Although I cannot read Spanish, I could see one of the Amazon Mexico emails included a verification code as well. I don't have an Amazon Mexico account. I only have Amazon accounts with Amazon US and Amazon UK.

To cut to the end, someone gained access to my Amazon US account, attempted to change my password and also set up an account with Amazon Mexico using my Amazon US account information. I spent the good part of yesterday afternoon contacting both Amazon US and Amazon Mexico about this. I also went to the Amazon Mexico site using the fraudulently set up account for access. That account contained all my account information from Amazon US, including home addresses and phone numbers. I changed the password and deleted the credit cards on file along with name, address and phone numbers for myself and those to whom I've had Amazon mail orders.

This morning I had an email from Amazon US advising me my account had been suspended for a few hours and I would have to reset my password to regain access. I checked the Amazon Mexico account and it no longer recognized me. Maybe things are getting normalized. Maybe.

I'm not one to believe in coincidences. I think someone gained access to my Amazon account through Amazon Pay, whether it came through Amazon or ITSupplies sites I don't know. I think my credit card information is safe since it's encrypted on Amazon. I think the process Amazon uses to keep unauthorized parties from making account changes worked in my case. I hope so. But beware of using Amazon Pay.

 

[Steve M.]

Wow, that's scary! Thanks for posting this. I looked up your company on Site Jabber, a review site that would have bad reviews if anyone did, and no trouble there except for some complaints about their checkout process

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/itsupplies.com

Do you think that you bought from a site that was masquerading as ITSupplies?

 

[Pete B]

This is interesting. It might be a coincidence, but I first came across Amazon Pay when purchasing some camping equipment from a trusted manufacturer. That was on the 1st of Jan. On the 3rd of jan my credit card details were used to make 4 fraudulent purchases totalling about £600. I had put it down to trying to buy a (Fan Ho) book from an unresponsive retailer who popped up on Google. That's the only other suspicious transaction for which I used the card.
Pete

 

[Steve M.]

The message I'm getting is that everyone should be using a credit cars or paypal for online transactions. People who use bank debit cards with Visa or MasterCard logos run the risk of having their bank accounts emptied if they get scammed. A secured credit card with a small balance that you can add to as needed is good protection too because it can be filled up to only the amount of a transaction each time.

My bank will cover fraud on my ATM card w/ a Visa logo 100%, but who knows how long it would take to sort things out? In the meantime my bank account funds would be either gone or frozen. These classified ads you see here and elsewhere where sellers ask that you use paypal's "gift" feature so they can avoid paying the seller fees....forget about that, there is zero protection for buyers if something goes wrong.

 

[Dogman]

The "interesting" experience just keeps on being interesting.

I had trouble resetting my password with Amazon. The problem there was related to the fact that my wife also has a separate Amazon account but we share the same email address. Every time I changed my password it actually changed hers. Eventually customer service at Amazon helped me and this was corrected without affecting my wife's account.

But...in the process, I received an email from an Asian website (uh, I can't read Spanish so be assured I'm unable to even determine if the site is Chinese, Japanese, Korean or other). Yep, someone is apparently attempting to set up an account there using my information obtained from Amazon US. As best I can determine, since verification is required from my email address to set up these accounts, it's unlikely anyone will be successful. I sure as hell ain't verifying such changes. Still I'm PO'd that someone obtained supposedly secure information.

As for the order that started the whole process, I went into IT Supplies site and found it allows changes to be made to orders that have not been completely processed. Everything looked in order but I changed from Amazon Pay to a credit card. If the credit card ends up compromised, I'll know the fault lies with IT Supplies, not Amazon. And my credit card company is pretty easy to deal with--we've been down this road before with stolen credit card information.

 

[willie_901]

The message I'm getting is that everyone should be using a credit cars or paypal for online transactions. ...

This is excellent advice.

 

[JoeLopez]

This sounds like a clear issue with the place you purchased from rather than Amazon pay itself. Maybe the link they provided for you to use was a scam?

 

[Dogman]

This sounds like a clear issue with the place you purchased from rather than Amazon pay itself. Maybe the link they provided for you to use was a scam?

Not a scam. The first portion of my paper order came today UPS. The second portion is scheduled for Thursday from a different warehouse. Very satisfied with their service and prices. I'm less than happy with Amazon Pay's security and I won't be using it again.

 

[Bill Clark]

Hope you work it out.

 

[JoeLopez]

Not a scam. The first portion of my paper order came today UPS. The second portion is scheduled for Thursday from a different warehouse. Very satisfied with their service and prices. I'm less than happy with Amazon Pay's security and I won't be using it again.

I didn't mean the transaction itself was a scam, but the links THEY provided to have you pay. Amazon Pay and Paypal are solid tools for online payment. Just an idea.

 

[Dogman]

That's possible. I suppose ITSupplies' security might have been breached and a phony link put in. I don't suspect ITSupplies of being involved. They're a reputable company...and one with very good service and prices. I've used them as a printing supply source for several years.