Banned from Amazon After Account Was Hacked

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: CA

So a while back my amazon account was hacked. I do not know how but whoever hacked my account started a shopping spree with some sort of credit card. At first I didn't think much of it since my credit card was not being charged but I still tried to close my account, but that failed. I never received any of these items and eventually I got emails along the lines of me needing to pay for the items because of issues with the Bank of the credit card. The thing is I never actually bought the items and it seemed that after whoever completed their spree they just disappeared. I refused to pay for the items that the perpetrator purchased and now my amazon account has been closed. I tried to open a new account but amazon linked it with the closed account since my original information was the same (address and name I'm guessing).

It's been a couple of months now and I have steered clear of amazon but is there anything I can do? Whenever I tried to email amazon regarding the issue, they never responded.

Will I ever be able to purchase items from amazon again? I had been a loyal customer for a long time.

Will I ever be able to purchase items from amazon again?

I don't know. Ask flyingron. I think he has the crystal ball this week.

You should report the identity theft and hacked account to the local cops. It's already been a few months and the cops won't do much. Have you discussed these crimes with Amazon?

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Quoting dmares

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It's been a couple of months now and I have steered clear of amazon but is there anything I can do? Whenever I tried to email amazon regarding the issue, they never responded.

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Try writing to one of the corporate officers at the corporate address:

https://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AMZN+Profile

Amazon owes you no right to possess an account. In fact, you noted fraudulent activity on the one you had and decided screw them. That usually indicates you know who the fraudster was. They have no reason to grant you another. You are a reliability risk.

I tried emailing and online chatting with amazon but there wasn't anything fixed. Then by the time my account closed, i couldn't even chat with them online anymore since you need an account to do so

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Quoting DaveM

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You should report the identity theft and hacked account to the local cops. It's already been a few months and the cops won't do much. Have you discussed these crimes with Amazon?

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Quoting adjusterjack

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Try writing to one of the corporate officers at the corporate address:

https://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AMZN+Profile

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what do i write? Do I just explain everything to my best knowledge? I'm afraid that since I do not know the perpetrator's information there is nothing that can be done.

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Quoting cbg

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Will I ever be able to purchase items from amazon again?

I don't know. Ask flyingron. I think he has the crystal ball this week.

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thank you for your help. I will be sure to ask him to do some magic with his crystal ball.

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Quoting dmares

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what do i write? Do I just explain everything to my best knowledge?

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Yes.

Pretty much the way you explained it here but with more details like dates, orders, credit card information, whatever you've managed to keep since this started.

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Quoting dmares

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I'm afraid that since I do not know the perpetrator's information there is nothing that can be done.

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You won't know that until you try.

Sometimes dealing with a human at the corporate level gets things done.

I've had lots of success that way.

No guarantees, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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Quoting dmares

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At first I didn't think much of it since my credit card was not being charged but I still tried to close my account, but that failed.

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You tried to close your account, as in you contacted Amazon and spoke with somebody, reporting the hacking, identity theft and fraudulent purchases? Or you tried to close your account in the sense that you looked for but couldn't find a "cancel my account" button, and chose not to tell Amazon about the unauthorized purchases? Did you even change your password, or delete unauthorized delivery addresses?

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Quoting dmares

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I never received any of these items....

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Are you telling us that they were shipped to your home address?

You've admitted to us about shoplifting from a department store and been banned from there.
http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178004

Trying to play the online version with Amazon?

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Quoting BooRennie

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You've admitted to us about shoplifting from a department store and been banned from there.
http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178004

Trying to play the online version with Amazon?

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I wasn't expecting a kind of Spanish Inquisition, BooRennie.

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Quoting adjusterjack

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I wasn't expecting a kind of Spanish Inquisition, BooRennie.

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Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition....

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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You tried to close your account, as in you contacted Amazon and spoke with somebody, reporting the hacking, identity theft and fraudulent purchases? Or you tried to close your account in the sense that you looked for but couldn't find a "cancel my account" button, and chose not to tell Amazon about the unauthorized purchases? Did you even change your password, or delete unauthorized delivery addresses?

Are you telling us that they were shipped to your home address?

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I contacted Amazon about the orders that appeared under my past purchases that I did not recognize. Then I tried to change my email and password to prevent the perpetrator access to my account. I deleted my credit card information that I had saved into amazon. Then amazon closed my account and sent me an email that I was no longer allowed to be a customer with them.

I do not know where these items were shipped but I do know that the orders existed because i not only received email from amazon demanding an acceptable payment form but I also saw them in the order history (while I still had access to my account).

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Quoting BooRennie

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You've admitted to us about shoplifting from a department store and been banned from there.
http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178004

Trying to play the online version with Amazon?

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I do not see how the two are related. And to be clear, no, I am not "playing the online version with amazon." as I stated before my account was hacked and I was left facing a bill for items I did not purchase. The Kohl's incident was a mistake and has nothing to do with this.

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Quoting dmares

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I contacted Amazon about the orders that appeared under my past purchases that I did not recognize. Then I tried to change my email and password to prevent the perpetrator access to my account. I deleted my credit card information that I had saved into amazon. Then amazon closed my account and sent me an email that I was no longer allowed to be a customer with them.

I do not know where these items were shipped but I do know that the orders existed because i not only received email from amazon demanding an acceptable payment form but I also saw them in the order history (while I still had access to my account).

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I do not see how the two are related. And to be clear, no, I am not "playing the online version with amazon." as I stated before my account was hacked and I was left facing a bill for items I did not purchase. The Kohl's incident was a mistake and has nothing to do with this.

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You seem to have an astonishing lack of boundaries when it comes to what belongs to you and what does not. But, do, carry on. :applause:

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Quoting dmares

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Will I ever be able to purchase items from amazon again? I had been a loyal customer for a long time.

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that is a question you must direct to amazon.

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Quoting dmares

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I contacted Amazon about the orders that appeared under my past purchases that I did not recognize. Then I tried to change my email and password to prevent the perpetrator access to my account. I deleted my credit card information that I had saved into amazon.

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Except you told us that the purchases weren't charged to your credit card, so there had to be an issue with your credit card information that happily coincided with when these purchases occurred.

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Quoting dmares

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I do not know where these items were shipped but I do know that the orders existed because i not only received email from amazon demanding an acceptable payment form but I also saw them in the order history (while I still had access to my account).

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By having to change your email address, you were able to confirm that your account's email address was unchanged by the hack. That means that every time a purchase was made, you received an email notice describing the purchase and the delivery address. You would have seen the same information when you looked at your order history. Further, when you reported this crime to the police, they should have obtained all of the order information from Amazon in order to identify possible suspects.

Based on what you posted, I don't think you did anything wrong.

Amazon failed to secure payment prior to shipping the fraudulent orders to a shipping address that is diffrent from the billing address. If they did secure payment and you got a chargeback for those fraudulent orders, Amazon will still have to take the loss. I don't think you have any obligation to pay for those fraudulent orders.

But Amazon can refuse to do business with you, there is nothing you can do about that.

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Quoting questionforu

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Based on what you posted, I don't think you did anything wrong.

Amazon failed to secure payment prior to shipping the fraudulent orders to a shipping address that is diffrent from the billing address. If they did secure payment and you got a chargeback for those fraudulent orders, Amazon will still have to take the loss. I don't think you have any obligation to pay for those fraudulent orders.

But Amazon can refuse to do business with you, there is nothing you can do about that.

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Re-read post #15. Amazon evidently doesn't believe OP's story, either - perhaps if OP had done something at the time, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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Re-read post #15. Amazon evidently doesn't believe OP's story, either - perhaps if OP had done something at the time, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

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Doesn't matter if Amazon doesn't believe the OP. It is their responsibility to secure payment prior to shipping any orders. Amazon states they do not charge the credit card until the item is shipped. OP says his credit card was never charged, so why did Amazon ship the orders?

Please don't be obtuse. If you have any familiarity with Amazon, you would know the "some type of card" was evidently a stolen cc number and OP intentionally did not report the fraudulent transactions even though email notification of shipping address and card number were sent for each order.

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Quoting questionforu

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Doesn't matter if Amazon doesn't believe the OP. It is their responsibility to secure payment prior to shipping any orders. Amazon states they do not charge the credit card until the item is shipped. OP says his credit card was never charged, so why did Amazon ship the orders?

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Quoting questionforu

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Doesn't matter if Amazon doesn't believe the OP. It is their responsibility to secure payment prior to shipping any orders. Amazon states they do not charge the credit card until the item is shipped. OP says his credit card was never charged, so why did Amazon ship the orders?

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Have you ever bought something on Amazon and had it ship elsewhere? I have. Frequently.

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Quoting questionforu

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Based on what you posted, I don't think you did anything wrong.

Amazon failed to secure payment prior to shipping the fraudulent orders to a shipping address that is diffrent from the billing address. If they did secure payment and you got a chargeback for those fraudulent orders, Amazon will still have to take the loss. I don't think you have any obligation to pay for those fraudulent orders.

But Amazon can refuse to do business with you, there is nothing you can do about that.

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So because the shipping and billing addresses didn't match, Amazon is at fault? Exactly how does that work?

There are steps to follow when processing credit cards with billing and shipping addresses that don't match. I use a UPS store for my packages so I've got validated addresses for that location on the cards I used. Can't remember if it was Amazon but some online retailers insisted (though I do buy a lot of Amazon stuff).

Like I said, I'm skeptical as well, though I've seen Amazon screw up before. Their customer service processes tend to be slow on things that are not specifically transaction related. All you can do is pursue your case.

And no, I don't have the crystal ball this week. I think Mr. K took it while I wasn't looking.

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Quoting questionforu

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Based on what you posted, I don't think you did anything wrong.

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Your thought being duly noted, even if you don't do anything wrong Amazon can still close your account. It doesn't have to do business with you.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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So because the shipping and billing addresses didn't match, Amazon is at fault? Exactly how does that work?

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I was under the impression that Amazon was not able to charge the credit card prior to shipping the order AND the shipping/billing address didn't match. Under that scenario, that should have been a red flag but they still shipped the order.

But it looks like I interpreted that OP's post wrong. So somebody was able to gain access to the OP's Amazon account, added a new credit card and placed several orders. The reason the OP was not charged for those purchases was because the new credit card was not the OP's credit card. So it looks like Amazon was able to charge the new credit card but the credit card holder charged back everything. If this is how it happened, why should the OP be liable for those fraudulent charges?

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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Your thought being duly noted, even if you don't do anything wrong Amazon can still close your account. It doesn't have to do business with you.

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Of course, Amazon can refuse to do business with the OP. I already mentioned that.

Although the OP said that the charges were made to "some sort of credit card", she later expressed that her credit card was on file for her account. She claims that she deleted her credit card only after the purchases were made. Her purchase confirmation emails would show the address to which the purchases were sent, as well as the form of payment. Also, as she reviewed the purchases online, she would also have seen the delivery address at that time, as well as being able to review how the items were purchased and see the last four digits of the credit card number used in the purchase.

The story thus appears to be that a mystery person obtained access to the OP's Amazon account and her saved credit card, but that rather than using the saved credit card the mystery person entered an entirely new credit card, made purchases that were authorized on the new card, then deleted the card information before the OP checked the account. The OP noticed the purchases made by the mystery person, but decided that they were no big deal because they weren't charged to her own credit card. When asked to confirm whether her own address was used for the delivery of these items, the OP disappeared from the thread -- but it sounds like the mystery person also showed up on the OP's doorstep and intercepted all of the packages he ordered, but without accidentally taking any packages the OP was expecting such that she would be clued into what was going on.

As we all seem to agree, whether or not Amazon is able to recover from the OP the money for those purchases, through civil or criminal proceedings, is entirely irrelevant to whether they are justified in closing the OP's account under the circumstances -- the subject of this thread. And as we all seem to agree, even without more information they are fully justified in closing the account and banning the OP. Amazon will also turn over their IP logs and delivery records to law enforcement in association with any investigation of credit card fraud.

I believe there is quite a bit more to the story.

In the meantime... http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...?nodeId=773768

I think that might explain things a bit.