Well, this was one of the most random scam/spammer experiences of my baiting life/career.
Email address used: supportteam@daramail.com
I got an official email from Amazon Prime (haha it wasnt official) thanking me for my recent payment of £79.99 for my prime membership. Hmm, I do have prime but pay it monthly.. I wasnt really puzzled – I knew it was a scam before I even opened it, let me explain;
Ok, so for starters a company as big as Amazon would not miss a space between Amazon and Prime in the title of an official email.
Also, the grammatical errors are immediate, and inexcusable. Greeting not Greetings. No pound sign, missing dates, its just all wrong. Also £79.99 is the annual payment, then it refers to monthly. I think this was maybe to panic the reader and make them do something. Anyway, the email itself was obviously fake – but it wanted me to call a phone number;
This puzzled me. As literally 99 out of 100 other similar scams want you to click a link and they harvest some kind of credit card info or personal info from you.
So, I called the number.
Ring ring…
Ring ring…
“Hello?”
I played along a bit;
“Hello, is this Amazon Prime?”
He replied
“Yes, this is amazon prime how can i help”
Me: “I got an email, I think I need a refund or something?”
Him: “Yes ok [inaudible]”
Then I dropped the bomb.
Me: “How do you sleep at night knowing you’re scamming people out of their hard earned money?”
I fully expected him to hang up, but he didnt!
I asked him why he did this, and he told me!
He explained that he also worked full time, and that COVID has caused so many issues in his country, he needed to earn money to he turned to this scam. He tried to say he was a nice guy and that he didnt take much money from people he was just trying to survive.
I explained that he wasnt not going to know if he caused issues for people and £79.99 is a lot of money to a lot of people!
I asked him if he had grandparents, he said yes and I asked him how he would feel if someone stole their last £80, he went quiet.
Then, his manner changed. He seems to be less confident and more humbled. I asked him to think long and hard about what he was doing, and he said he would stop doing it.
A scammer with a conscious!
Update – I started writing this on the 3rd of June – its now the 16th and the number now just rings out. I hope this means hes stopped the scam!
Update – He called me back! I didnt answer, but it means hes still at it.
Update – Had a call today from 01324 409 887 and an automated lady said similar to the above “your prime membership is expiring etc” and press 1 to speak to someone, I pressed 1, through to – what sounded like – the same guy.
01324 409 887
DO NOT PAY THIS GUY ANY MONEY! HE IS NOT AMAZON PRIME!
One reply on “Amazonprime payment confirmation – SCAM”
I’m going through a similar process with smart parking at the moment which is from 2018. I parked in a private car park . I paid the fee. I received my ticket and displayed it on my wind screen. …. 2 weeks later I got a parking
Invoice accusing me of not paying. I have disputed it from day one. I rejected the charge and told them the ticket number to check against their machine and they will realise it’s a mistake…………No…..I’ve had letters from debt collectors threatening me with court… Higher costs and even it could lead me to having bad dept…..I have disputed all the letters they ave sent me and slapped a £48 charge back for correspondence . We are now at around £380 they owe me ……I now get the threatening letters from Gladstone solicitors who are threatening to take me to court. They say I owe £185 now but will reduce it for a quick settlement to £100. ….They can go and swing for it. I paid for my ticket. I punched my full reg in the machine and was given a ticket which I have as evidence to take to court. Apparently the reason I have been now told I received the ticket is because the ticket only shows my last 3 letters of my registration number…. I punched in my full reg number but have no control what the machine prints out…. I have been asking them to stop threatening to take me to court. Let’s just go … I can’t wait…. If I win my case I will persue to take them to the small claims court and try to get my invoice to them paid to me …..They keep threatening but don’t seem to want to act… I can’t wait.