Have I been / am I being hacked? Scammed?

[tonycollinet]

Really odd sequence of events tonight.

I ordered £400 of amazon printable gift cards for my Father in law to give to everyone.

About 15 minutes later I got a call from a person who said they were from amazon, and wanted to confirm if I had placed the order. I was suspicious, but they knew what I'd orderd and the value. So it must be Amazon, right?

I contacted amazon support via chat, gave them the number that had called me - they stated Amazon had not called. Aslo odd, the phone number on my amazon account is my mobile, but the caller called my landline.

So either, amazons right hand don't know what the left hand is doing, and it was a legit call (but why to landline)

OR - Someone has visiblity of amazons systems or my amazon account and are acting nefariously - but again why landline, and also - why would a scammer just call to confirm the order was made by me. All they could achieve would be raising suspiciion / warn me. Amazon account has two factor authentication.

OR - Someone has access to my email (email provider has landline number on account), and has seen the confirmation email - but again, why call to confirm, yet not ask for anything that might give them access to the amazon account.


Gift card order has been cancelled and amazon/email passwords are also being changed.

What am I missing?

[rusky]

Something's not right & my money is on the email provider.

I ordered a gift card a couple of years ago. Can't remember if it was as physical card or emailed but when the recipient tried to use it, it had been redeemed.

It took a few days but they found the account it was redeemed on and closed it.

[tonycollinet]

I've changed all passwords, but I'm convinced now this was a legitimate call.

I've found my landline associated with the default delivery address.

And there is absolutely no reason for a scammer to confirm with me that I've ordered a bunch of gift cards to the value of whatever it was.

There must be a team somewhere checking on high value gift card orders.

[ian]

I think your last sentence is probably the correct one, they are likely checking that someone somewhere doesn't have their hand in the virtual till.

[Kim]

Still, phoning people out of the blue because of an otherwise successful online transaction is rude, annoying and frankly bang out of order.  We give you our phone numbers to satisfy the form verification, not so you can phone us up on them

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's also phishogenic by accustoming us to these procedures.

[grams]

If you Google for phonecalls from Amazon you’ll find them telling the press they never phone you so treat each one as a scam.

[Gaston Lagaffe]

Related issue here.

Tesco express in my vicinity. Very rarely use it as local Budgens is closer.

On Tuesday and yesterday (Wednesday) I popped in to buy lottery tickets with cash as Budgens is out of order.

Yesterday at 19:30 I received an email from Tesco asking for feedback on my store visit.

So how did they know I visited the store 😳

[Hot Flatus]

They scanned your vaccine chip

[grams]

You used your club card? Or it was a reference to a previous visit?

[Gaston Lagaffe]

You used your club card? Or it was a reference to a previous visit?

I didn’t scan my club card and if it’s a previous visit it was so long ago I have no recollection. Months at least, the email says recent visit.

[Beardy]

If it smells phishy, treat it as phish. The consequence of being wrong are significantly less that way round.

[Lightning Phil]

You used your club card? Or it was a reference to a previous visit?

I didn’t scan my club card and if it’s a previous visit it was so long ago I have no recollection. Months at least, the email says recent visit.

You used your credit card which you’ve previously used with your club card. So they knew it was you?

[bobb]

Related issue here.

Tesco express in my vicinity. Very rarely use it as local Budgens is closer.

On Tuesday and yesterday (Wednesday) I popped in to buy lottery tickets with cash as Budgens is out of order.

Yesterday at 19:30 I received an email from Tesco asking for feedback on my store visit.

So how did they know I visited the store 😳

Coincidence is the scammer's number one friend. They thrive on it. (And that includes the likes of Tesco!)

If you used cash that's all it can be. Unless Tesco have started using facial recognition to monitor their customers. Which, you know, they might 

[Gaston Lagaffe]

You used your club card? Or it was a reference to a previous visit?

I didn’t scan my club card and if it’s a previous visit it was so long ago I have no recollection. Months at least, the email says recent visit.

You used your credit card which you’ve previously used with your club card. So they knew it was you?

No cash.

[Gaston Lagaffe]

Related issue here.

Tesco express in my vicinity. Very rarely use it as local Budgens is closer.

On Tuesday and yesterday (Wednesday) I popped in to buy lottery tickets with cash as Budgens is out of order.

Yesterday at 19:30 I received an email from Tesco asking for feedback on my store visit.

So how did they know I visited the store 😳

Coincidence is the scammer's number one friend. They thrive on it. (And that includes the likes of Tesco!)

If you used cash that's all it can be. Unless Tesco have started using facial recognition to monitor their customers. Which, you know, they might 

Coincidence is right.  The email was genuine 

Coïncidence is also the conspiracy theorists best friend, which is why idiots believe wacky things like Flatus posted.

The truth is by coincidence my daughter who also barely uses the store popped in on her way home to buy a meal deal on the same day as she had an early start the next day.

Her club card is naturally linked to my account.

[bobb]

With the supermarkets, I was only half joking about the facial recognition. In Saino's when you use the smart scanner thing and go to the smart scanner checkout, it obvioulsy links whatever cards you use to your loyalty card, but there is also a camera above each checkout point. A bit unnerving when you first notice it and see your face on the screen. So now they can link your face too. They probably clock you as soon as you walk in. Actually - as soon as you rock up in the car park. Probably got number plate recognition too. Fuck, you probably can't scratch your arse within a 100 yards of a Saino's without them knowing about it....

[Kim]

Retailers can certainly collect WiFi (and probably Bluetooth) MAC addresses to achieve the same thing.  They don't even need to provide a usable network connection, just listen for phones etc. that are scanning for WiFi.  In a large store with plenty of access points to achieve a fine granularity, they can track which areas you spend the most time in.

Cheap, computationally simple, and the customer maintains the tracking device for you.

You can also provide useful footfall data by analysing CCTV without doing full facial recognition.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I wonder if those till cameras are used for customer demographics? You wouldn't need to identify individuals in order to classify people broadly by sex, age, and something approximating to "ethnicity".

[rafletcher]

With the supermarkets, I was only half joking about the facial recognition. In Saino's when you use the smart scanner thing and go to the smart scanner checkout, it obvioulsy links whatever cards you use to your loyalty card, but there is also a camera above each checkout point. A bit unnerving when you first notice it and see your face on the screen. So now they can link your face too. They probably clock you as soon as you walk in. Actually - as soon as you rock up in the car park. Probably got number plate recognition too. Fuck, you probably can't scratch your arse within a 100 yards of a Saino's without them knowing about it....

Amazon already have “cashless” stores, where what you select is charged to your account using facial recognition. No microchips required. And in China, those who commit minor offences, like littering, or using the incorrect recycling box, are identified and fined, or educated, by means of FR.

[Hot Flatus]

With the supermarkets, I was only half joking about the facial recognition. In Saino's when you use the smart scanner thing and go to the smart scanner checkout, it obvioulsy links whatever cards you use to your loyalty card, but there is also a camera above each checkout point. A bit unnerving when you first notice it and see your face on the screen. So now they can link your face too. They probably clock you as soon as you walk in. Actually - as soon as you rock up in the car park. Probably got number plate recognition too. Fuck, you probably can't scratch your arse within a 100 yards of a Saino's without them knowing about it....

Masks 

[rafletcher]

With the supermarkets, I was only half joking about the facial recognition. In Saino's when you use the smart scanner thing and go to the smart scanner checkout, it obvioulsy links whatever cards you use to your loyalty card, but there is also a camera above each checkout point. A bit unnerving when you first notice it and see your face on the screen. So now they can link your face too. They probably clock you as soon as you walk in. Actually - as soon as you rock up in the car park. Probably got number plate recognition too. Fuck, you probably can't scratch your arse within a 100 yards of a Saino's without them knowing about it....

Masks 

But only if worn properly, covering the nose as well - at least in the case of Apple’s face recognition.

[mzjo]

Sorry, late on this. Did you have your mobile with you? On "en veille" whatever that is (english is somewhere in the black hole of my brain these days)? Or with Bluetooth enabled for Track and Trace (if that's how it works in UK; it works like that in France)? If so Google will have tracked you and probably sold the information to any willing buyer. (They say they don't but we get too many strangly accurate coincidences - commercial propositions, promotional offers and the like for it to be chance). In our case neither Madame nor I usually leave Bluetooth on so it is just the phone tracking where we go and  what we have just looked on the computer or anywhere else.