Noida resident’s account with Amazon website hacked; FIR filed

A resident of Noida has filed a police complaint, alleging that her Amazon account was hacked in the month of June 2020. The complainant, Surbhi Aggarwal, an advocate

A resident of Noida has filed a police complaint, alleging that her Amazon account was hacked in the month of June 2020. The complainant, Surbhi Aggarwal, an advocate and a resident of Noida, Sector 25, said, in August, she noticed that she was unable to log into her Amazon Prime account. When she reached out to the customer care, she was informed that the email ID and mobile number have been changed.

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Aggarwal said that she purchased an Amazon Prime subscription on February 10, 2020, which was valid for one year. “I noticed problems in logging into my account in August. I contacted the customer care to report the matter on August 6, 2020 and my call was transferred to accounts department, where a customer care executive informed me that my email ID has been changed on June 25, 2020,” she stated in the FIR.

“I informed the executive that I had not changed my email ID, and that I did not get any notification from the company regarding the change. The executive informed me that a confirmation email was sent to me and forwarded me the same,” she said.

The customer care executive also informed her that a person named Omkar has been added to the new account and his address was mentioned as Ashok Nagar, Shadora, Madhya Pradesh. “The executive also told me that a bluetooth headset, worth ₹3,887, has been ordered using my account. It is very clear that my account was hacked,” she said.

“I also received an email from the office of Mr Bezos, stating that her Amazon Account security breach issue has been investigated and resolved. I was never informed of the results of the investigation conducted by the company,” she said. She filed a complaint with the cyber cell which investigated the matter and directed the Sector 20 police to register an FIR on October 22, 2020.

Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional DCP Noida, said the police have registered a case against Omkar and unknown staff of Amazon under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and sections 65 and 66 of the IT Act. “The cyber cell investigated the matter and submitted a technical report to Sector 20 police. Prima facie, it appears a case of cyber fraud. We will question Amazon staff in this case,” Singh said.

A representative of the company said, “We have just been made aware of the matter and are in the process of retrieving the details from the concerned police station to help resolve the issue of the customer. ”