Palos Hills Resident Swindled Out Of $8,000 In ‘Amazon Account Scam’

PALOS HILLS, IL — Palos Hills police are cautioning residents to be extra careful if they get a phone call from someone claiming to be from Amazon warning them about a suspicious purchase on their account.

A resident said they received a call from someone named Veronica claiming to be from Amazon. Veronica told the resident their account was hacked and was in jeopardy of losing $9,000.

Veronica instructed the resident to purchase gift cards in various amounts to download the Anydesk and TextNow apps, which allowed Veronica to have access to the resident’s phone.

The resident was directed to send QR codes from different Walmart stores, and Apple gift cards from different Walgreens locations to Veronica. The resident lost $8,000 from their account.

In past scams, law enforcement has reported that caller ID will show what appears to be a Kansas number, according to news reports. Then, the caller will claim to be from Amazon and say they are looking into a suspicious purchase on your account.

Most “Amazon account scams” are run by sophisticated organized criminal organizations, and are nearly impossible to track. If anyone calls claiming to need any form of payment via cash card, bank account or credit card information, hand up and notify local law enforcement, police say.