From the desk of St. Landry Parish Sheriff, Bobby J. Guidroz:
Recently the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office as well as many other law enforcement agencies have been inundated with online payment scams. The scammer uses legitimate sites such as Amazon, EBay, ITunes, and even uses computer programs to clone law enforcement phone number in an effort to steal your money. The scammer will tell you to pay with gift cards, green dot cards, and money grams. This 4 part scammer series will hopefully help you detect scams.
THE AMAZON SCAM
You find a cheap vehicle (e.g., car, truck, camper, or other high-value item) online, and the seller claims that for your protection the purchase will be completed via Amazon Payments or another “safe” way to pay. The item is often priced far below market value and the seller claims a need to sell the vehicle quickly because he or she is moving out of the state/county, being called for military service, getting a divorce, and so on. Emails and invoices often include unauthorized use of the Amazon logo, trademarks, or reference to the Amazon A-to-Z Guarantee and may contain other typos or grammatical errors.
You are instructed to make a payment using an Amazon.com Gift Card, or another form of payment (e.g., Western Union, MoneyGram, or bank transfer).
This is a scam. Amazon.com does not sell cars, and Amazon.com Gift Cards should not be used to make payments to other businesses or individuals.
Do not send money–by cash, wire transfer, Western Union, PayPal, MoneyGram or other means, including by Amazon Payments–to a seller who claims that Amazon or Amazon Payments will guarantee the transaction, refund your funds if you are not satisfied with the purchase, or hold your funds in escrow.
