You know that deal for a Roomba vacuum you saw on Amazon last week that seemed too good to be true? It probably was. It’s a good thing you passed. An undisclosed number of Amazon’s two million third-party sellers saw their accounts hacked in recent weeks, with said stolen information then finding its way onto the ‘dark web.’ There, crooks used the stolen credentials to sell nonexistent merchandise, then changed users banking info to their own to collect the sales.
The theft of the Amazon Seller account usernames and passwords allowed hackers to list high-priced items at hugely discounted rates in an attempt to quickly gain sales of which they diverted to their own bank account. Buyers jump on the steal-of-a-deal right away, and the money clears their account in no time. Before the actual seller can even receive an email informing them they have sold a product that they don’t recognize, the money is gone.
While Amazon isn’t commenting on issues individual sellers have had, a company spokesman said the company “is constantly innovating on behalf of customers and sellers to ensure their information is secure and that they can buy and sell with confidence.” This same scheme has been used in the past on eBay sellers using PayPal accounts, but this is the first time Amazon has seen the move used on their website. With Amazon being a heavyweight in the online marketplace, it was only a matter of time until hackers broke in:
“Hacking Amazon is becoming … increasingly a big deal,” said Juozas Kaziuk nas, chief executive of Marketplace Pulse, a business-intelligence firm focused on e-commerce. “The value to be gained is bigger as Amazon grows.”
Experts are asking buyers to be aware that if a deal that is not officially linked to Amazon seems too good to be true, they should report it, or at the very least pass. The new Nintendo Switch has been flagged as a likely product to be used in the fraudulent seller scheme. iPhone EarPods would also be a likely target, as these hackers prey on consumers’ thirst for the hardest objects to obtain.
(Via Fox Business)