Every day we receive countless calls from Call Centers who offer us advantageous contracts, mostly related to telephony and electricity and gas supplies. Sometimes they are honest traders doing their job, but often behind there is a daily schedule that pushes them to find strategies to close as many contracts as possible. In other cases, like the one we will talk about, they pretend Amazon.
Such situations can only be called by their name: scams. In fact, these are unscrupulous telephone operators who, speaking of phantom discount vouchers or coupon codes, propose solutions for aggressive trading. A widespread fraud, this one, which exploits the celebrity of Amazonnow synonymous with seriousness, professionalism and even success.
But how can you defend yourself against this and other similar scams? Let’s find out together the way to succeed unmask whose number is calling you, in any situation.
Beware of the scam that uses Amazon as a bait
We have therefore understood that in these days a scam is spreading like wildfire that uses the good name of Amazon. It is neither phishing nor smishing. Behind this scam are hiding telephone operators who pretend what they are not trying to promote operations trading very risky. One of the companies involved appears to be Financial Services Negativefamous for its impetuous activations.
A typical phone call begins with the usual introduction like: “Good morning, we are from Amazon. Have you read our message about the discount coupon? Why hasn’t he used it yet since he’s entitled to it?“. From here we add the scam that would see the recipient of the call subscribe to an online trading plan to have in exchange a promised reward a coupon by Amazon.
Obviously these operators Call Center they are not employees of Amazon nor have they been commissioned by the multinational to contact users by promoting online investment packages by giving in exchange discount vouchers or coupon codes to be used on its store. But how can we find out who is actually calling us?
Unknown numbers: how to find out who is calling us
If you have been contacted by fake operators of Amazonfrom aggressive Call Centers or from so-called Mute Phone Calls, there are several ways to find out who is behind these unknown numbers. One of these can be some apps in the store of your mobile device.
First of all Truecaller, a free application that will notify you who is calling you the instant you receive a phone call. On the official website you will not only find links to download it directly from your smartphone, but also a search bar where you can enter the phone number that is “haunting” you and thus find out who it is.
He has made such a thing available AGCOM, the Italian Communications Authority. Basically, by connecting to the dedicated page at telephone numbers made available to the public and used for call center services, you can enter the phone number that is trying to contact you in the search bar. Once you have clicked on the “Search” button, you can go back to the registry of the company carrying out the Call Center activity on the basis of the information declared by the same. But be careful because if the numbering has not been declared at Register of Communication Operators you will not get any information.
Amazon helps users defend themselves
Obviously Amazon it has nothing to do with the scam of those operators who pretend to be its employees to promote dangerous and aggressive investment formulas. However, the online shopping giant has dedicated several pages where you can find useful information to defend against phishing (email), smishing (SMS) and scam call center attacks. Here is an excerpt of the page we are talking about:
We take fraud, scam, phishing and spoofing attempts seriously. If you receive any correspondence that you believe does not come from Amazon, please notify us immediately by visiting the page Report a suspicious communication or webpage.
Regarding the suspicious phone callsthere are some tricks to find out if it really comes from Amazon or if on the other side there are fraudulent Call Centers who want to promote something dangerous:
- in no way will Amazon ask for a payment od will offer a refund unexpected;
- for no reason will Amazon ask for a payment outside of its official website or app;
- Amazon will never contact you to promote packages of online trading of other companies.