Scam with the fake courier, the fake sales site, “the child who has a problem with his phone” and even the fake hitman: we already knew the criminals were creative when it came to scams. The latest scam detected by the police provides (again) new proof. On social networks, the national gendarmerie warned this week about what it calls the “Amazon product tester” job scam.
No fraudulent SMS or email here, but a good old paper letter, imitating Amazon’s header and graphic charter and inviting you to “test a new product” after a so-called purchase made on the Amazon platform. -trade. “We offer each member a free item for testing, and a commission of a certain amount,” it is mentioned in the letter, promising a commission of “up to 40 euros”.
Interested people are then encouraged to scan the QR Code printed on the mail “to record your name and contact details”. And this is where the scam takes shape. Once the QR Code has been scanned, victims must provide a whole bunch of personal information (last name, first name, address, bank card number, etc.). Data which is then resold on the darkweb, or is used to carry out a fake bank advisor scam, “the phenomenon of 2023” according to the Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr platform. In this type of scam, scammers spoof the victim’s bank customer service number and trick them into validating online purchases or money transfers.
Also read: The new techniques used by web scammers to steal from their victims
It’s difficult to know how long this fake Amazon tester scam has been going on, and how many people have fallen for it and been scammed. She could have remained under the radar for a long time, if one of these letters had not been sent… to a police officer. Chief Warrant Officer Nicolas Renaud, gendarme in the judicial support cell of the Haute-Savoie departmental gendarmerie group, told Franceinfo that he recently received this letter at his home in Annecy. Enough to update this scam.
“What tipped me off was the quality of the support, the printing, the closing words of the letter: “all my best wishes”, and above all an email address that did not correspond not at all to Amazon,” reports the investigator. The contact email address mentioned in the letter is indeed puzzling (eu4@freegiftf.com). As well as the place of delivery of the mail, the Netherlands. Furthermore, as reported by an Internet user under the national gendarmerie post on We only have the products to test, in exchange for an honest and detailed user opinion.
It is therefore under no circumstances necessary to scan the QR Code present on the mail, warns the gendarmerie, which also calls for “reporting false sites and social profiles” on the Pharos platform, and also to make loved ones aware of this scam.
