From District Attorney, Stephanie L. Vettenburg-Shaffer

Re: Scam Alert

Date:  December 17, 2020

District Attorney Stephanie Vettenburg-Shaffer reports that, on December 17, 2020, the District Attorney’s Office received a complaint from a community member who reported that several area citizens had been the victim of a scam in which at least one of them lost thousands of dollars.  Each victim reported that the scammer pretended to be an employee of Amazon and convinced the victim to provide bank account or credit card information.  The District Attorney was also contacted by someone pretending to be an employee of Amazon.  The District Attorney received a text messaged that read “Your Amazon account has been locked.  Please update your billing information.”  There was then a link to provide bank account information. We know that other residents received a similar text message.

Every scam has slightly different methods but, ultimately, the scammer has to gain your trust and an easy way to do this is by pretending to be from a trusted company.  They then request your financial information.

Another technique used by scammers is to convince the victim that they must act now so they feel they don’t have time to call anyone to confirm the call is legitimate. 

If you receive a message or call from someone requesting any information that would allow them to gain access to your money or your credit, you should be on high alert. 

You should never respond to such a request.  You should always verify the identity of who you are dealing with by contacting them in the way your normally do – and not by clicking on the link they now provide.  If you need to confirm your account settings with Amazon, you should log on to your Amazon account or call Amazon on its official telephone number. If you have been the victim of a  crime, please call 911 or your local police department.