Amazon.com
Complaint 122264 Details

This charge showed up as a debit transaction and a hold was placed on my account for this amount and a $1.00 pre-authorization transaction. I called the number listed in the transaction and the phone was answered by someone stating "Amazon Payment Services". When I explained the issue, she asked me for my email address (which I gave her) and she asked for the last 4 digits of the card (which I also gave her). She said she could not see a charge originating from my Ammazon account (which I did not think I had) but if I gave her the card number she would do a system search. I did not give her my card number and she transferred me to the "payment services department". Rick from this department came on the phone, called me by name and explained that they could not tell where this payment originated from without the full card number. I told him I was uncomfortable with giving anyone my full card number and he responded that he would send me an email that had a secure (???) fax number where either myself or my financial institute could fax over the needed information to continue researching this issue. See email below:
Hello,

To assist you in determining the origin of the unknown charge to your Visa card, please fax or have your issuing bank fax to us at 304-522-8017 the following information:

* complete credit card number or numbers if this is a joint account
* copy of bank statement showing the charge
* bank account number (if debit)
* routing number (if debit)
* date of charge
* amount of charge
* contact phone number for your issuing bank
* your name, email address, and phone number or fax number


Once again, we ask that this information be faxed to us simply because e-mail is not as secure a method of transmitting your credit card number.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?

For the most part, the phone call and email looked pretty legit....called my financial institution and they told me to just keep an eye on my account to see if the charge actually came in, then I could take dispute steps if needed.
When you look at the list of items they wanted, you could see they were trying to get account/bank/routing numbers so they could possibly get into your account in other ways than by card. (direct withdraw, ACH transactions, etc.) If a statement was sent they could also see what your balances were and know how much they could get out in one swoop without having the transaction overdraw and cause someone in the bank to look at it or generate notices. Pretty slick....why would Amazon need all that info???Maybe I'm just paranoid