Amazon Account Hacked

cmoliphant

Hi, someone hacked my amazon account back on the 7th December 2020 and purchases two identical items that cost a total of £200.  I have been fighting with Amazon ever since to have my money refunded and they keep promising me it will be refunded and the refund has been authorised.  However, I still have not received my refund to my credit card.  My Credit card company will not fight the case until Amazon say it was fraud!!!!  I have set up 2 step security authentication on my Amazon account, as I had to leave my card details on my Amazon account to enable them to refund me.
Has anyone any advice on this matter or has it happened to them.
Thank you in advance Claire

Tokmon

cmoliphant said:

Hi, someone hacked my amazon account back on the 7th December 2020 and purchases two identical items that cost a total of £200.  I have been fighting with Amazon ever since to have my money refunded and they keep promising me it will be refunded and the refund has been authorised.  However, I still have not received my refund to my credit card.  My Credit card company will not fight the case until Amazon say it was fraud!!!!  I have set up 2 step security authentication on my Amazon account, as I had to leave my card details on my Amazon account to enable them to refund me.
Has anyone any advice on this matter or has it happened to them.
Thank you in advance Claire

It's important to realise that your account wasn't "hacked" if that was the case it would be big news and tens of thousands of accoints would have been affected.
What has actually happened is that you have accidentally given out your password which is most likely through a phishing email.
So the best advice is to make sure you change all your passwords on all accounts, set up 2 factor authentication on every account you have.

cmoliphant

Tokmon said:

cmoliphant said:

Hi, someone hacked my amazon account back on the 7th December 2020 and purchases two identical items that cost a total of £200.  I have been fighting with Amazon ever since to have my money refunded and they keep promising me it will be refunded and the refund has been authorised.  However, I still have not received my refund to my credit card.  My Credit card company will not fight the case until Amazon say it was fraud!!!!  I have set up 2 step security authentication on my Amazon account, as I had to leave my card details on my Amazon account to enable them to refund me.
Has anyone any advice on this matter or has it happened to them.
Thank you in advance Claire

It's important to realise that your account wasn't "hacked" if that was the case it would be big news and tens of thousands of accoints would have been affected.
What has actually happened is that you have accidentally given out your password which is most likely through a phishing email.
So the best advice is to make sure you change all your passwords on all accounts, set up 2 factor authentication on every account you have.

I have done this, but it was an unauthorised transaction on my amazon account. I did not get a phishing email, as I am extremely careful regarding this, as we have had our email at work hacked before, so I am vigilant.

MattMattMattUK

cmoliphant said:

I have done this, but it was an unauthorised transaction on my amazon account. 

There is a difference between unauthorised transactions and being hacked.

cmoliphant said:

I did not get a phishing email, as I am extremely careful regarding this, as we have had our email at work hacked before, so I am vigilant.

Do you re-use passwords across different accounts, is one of your devices compromised in some way? Because without either of those two then you must have been phished at some point. 

Sandtree

The dictionary definition of hacked is "gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer". Even if the OP fell for a phishing attempt or has reused a password that doesnt mean they authorised the access to the their data on the Amazon systems. All of this is fairly irrelevant for the OP however.

They bought two items at £100 each... these were presumably physical products and so where were they delivered to? To be able to add a new address, even without 2 level authorisation, requires more than just your password... when doing so myself its always required the CCV to be reentered to allow delivery to a new address. Other merchants will send emails.

Firstly, you need to change password for Amazon, your email and probably many other places. Each password should be different (or at least for core items that can enable spending).

Secondly, you need to speak to your bank again and reitterate that this is an authorized transaction and if they will not treat it as such then log a complaint. 

Tokmon

Sandtree said:

The dictionary definition of hacked is "gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer". Even if the OP fell for a phishing attempt or has reused a password that doesnt mean they authorised the access to the their data on the Amazon systems. All of this is fairly irrelevant for the OP however.

The reason i like to point out in these cases that it's not "hacking" is because i have heard so many people talk about hacking as something that happened that was nothing to do with them. So generally people think that "hacking" is when someone finds a security flaw in the system and then it will be in the news with many accounts effected. But when it's just one person's account/s then it's important for them to realise it will be an issue there end 9 times out of 10 so they should secure all their accounts and change passwords as required. 

If someone handed me their phone so i could make a phone call and i opened up their messages and read one instead that would technically be "hacking" but that isn't how people use the term in real life.

Sandtree

Tokmon said:
 So generally people think that "hacking" is when someone finds a security flaw in the system and then it will be in the news with many accounts effected. But when it's just one person's account/s then it's important for them to realise it will be an issue there end 9 times out of 10 so they should secure all their accounts and change passwords as required. 

If someone handed me their phone so i could make a phone call and i opened up their messages and read one instead that would technically be "hacking" but that isn't how people use the term in real life.

Clearly for a definitive answer on what the average person considers "hacking" would require much more than two random forum members opining on the matter but I do believe people generally will consider hacking as broader than only exploiting security weaknesses... certainly I've known a fair few people saying their ex "hacked" their email etc after breaking up and I don't think the majority of them believe their ex has suddenly developed the IT skills to bypass Gmail's security systems and backdoored into their account... I suspect they will believe that either a) they brute forced/guessed their password or b) think there is some keylogging or camera etc enabling them to capture their password.

Misusing access that you have legitimately been given is certainly more questionable as hacking or not (as per your phone example)

Carrot007

Sandtree said:certainly I've known a fair few people saying their ex "hacked" their email etc after breaking up and I don't think the majority of them believe their ex has suddenly developed the IT skills to bypass Gmail's security systems and backdoored into their account

Which would nopt be hacking. Hacking is an inelegant method of trying to bypass something. That's why it uses the hack part in it. You know like hack of a branch (of say a tree) as opposed to nicely sawing off.

Hacking is something done by the unskilled, it amuses me that people use it for the exact opposite meaning these days. There are much better words out there to be used! However such is lexicon.

davidmcn

Tokmon said:

Sandtree said:

The dictionary definition of hacked is "gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer". Even if the OP fell for a phishing attempt or has reused a password that doesnt mean they authorised the access to the their data on the Amazon systems. All of this is fairly irrelevant for the OP however.

If someone handed me their phone so i could make a phone call and i opened up their messages and read one instead that would technically be "hacking" but that isn't how people use the term in real life.

It obviously is how people use it in real life given how often this sort of argument comes up...

born_again

Something you also have to be aware of with amazon. Is if you have ever had your card details on someone else's account (often a family member, if sharing Prime) that if their card expires it will auto default to using the next live card.
I have lost count of the number of people I have spoken to who have said my Amazon Account has been hacked & a annual Prime payment taken, or even a purchase. Only for them to ring back later to apologize and can their card be un-stopped (no chance) as they have found it was a family member..

Worst ones are where it is someone at uni.. Who forget to tell parents...

Tokmon

davidmcn said:

Tokmon said:

Sandtree said:

The dictionary definition of hacked is "gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer". Even if the OP fell for a phishing attempt or has reused a password that doesnt mean they authorised the access to the their data on the Amazon systems. All of this is fairly irrelevant for the OP however.

If someone handed me their phone so i could make a phone call and i opened up their messages and read one instead that would technically be "hacking" but that isn't how people use the term in real life.

It obviously is how people use it in real life given how often this sort of argument comes up...

The main point i was trying to make was that from my personal experience i have seen many people who say their account has been "hacked" but then don't realise they could have set up 2 factor authentication or that they may have been tricked to give out their password in a phishing attempt. So i think it's important for them to know what they need to do next so it doesn't happen again.