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Original poster

Son being charged for Amazon Prime

59 replies

daylightrobbery · 23/06/2020 13:31

Help! My 16 year old son is being charged £7.99 a month for Amazon Prime via his debit card on an account he has no recollection of setting up. Bank tell him to talk to Amazon, and Amazon tell him to talk to the bank. Amazon won't tell him the email address relating to the account, only the first and last digit and without that he appears to be stuck.

Last month he cancelled the debit card, but the charge has gone through again today despite the cancelled card. The bank has now blocked all Amazon transactions from his account which is apparently the only way to stop it but means he can't use his actual Amazon account any longer.

I would love him to be able to get his money back from Amazon, for a service he is obviously not using and which I'm beginning to think someone may have set up fraudulently. Either that or he did it for a free trial, but he has no record of any email account beginning and ending with the two digits he has been given.

Does anyone have any ideas?

OP posts:
SuzetteCrepe · 23/06/2020 15:17

Is he sure he cant get into his Amazon account. If he can remember the email then he just clicks on Your Account or Your Prime then cancels it. Otherwise report the card its being taken from as stolen and report it to the banks fraud dept.

DivisionBelles · 23/06/2020 15:17

Something similar happened to my son at a similar age on Amazon. Someone managed to hack his account and we only knew this had happened when loads of random stuff started arriving. He couldn't login to his account as the email had been changed. We contacted the bank, reported it as fraud and all the money came back to him. Fraudsters were a bit rubbish though as they didn't change the shipping address for all st stuff ordered.

FurbabyLife · 23/06/2020 15:18

Why haven’t you reported this as fraud to his bank?

Because it isn’t. He signed up for the free trial and can’t remember how to get back into his account. Hardly fraud.

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BobbieDraper · 23/06/2020 15:18

Report it as fraud. Why arent you doing that?

The card details have clearly been stolen. Why would you not report the card as stolen when you cancelled it?

Report the card as stolen, report the fraud and then move on with life.

He will still be able to buy things on amazon with his new, replacement card.

ilovemydogandMrObama · 23/06/2020 15:18

@DivisionBelles

Something similar happened to my son at a similar age on Amazon. Someone managed to hack his account and we only knew this had happened when loads of random stuff started arriving. He couldn't login to his account as the email had been changed. We contacted the bank, reported it as fraud and all the money came back to him. Fraudsters were a bit rubbish though as they didn't change the shipping address for all st stuff ordered.
when you bring back quote of the week...
MooseBeTimeForSummer · 23/06/2020 15:25

Random thought - does he have an iPhone? If so, check in Settings > Passwords and accounts

TeaStory · 23/06/2020 15:26

It definitely sounds fraudulent. When a LoveFilm account was set up fraudulently, they used my credit card and postal address but their own email account. If he doesn’t know the email address associated with this account, then it must be fraud.

villamariavintrapp · 23/06/2020 15:29

Could well be fraud but I'd be a bit suspicious that he 'can't remember' if he set up another email account and a new amazon account for a free trial I don't think you'd forget all that..

SuzetteCrepe · 23/06/2020 15:31

I thought you had to be 18 to set up an Amazon account and 13 to 17 yo had to sign up sharing with an adult but could then have their own passwords and email addresses.

whistler2020 · 23/06/2020 15:34

I had similar! I had logged in with my phone number at a separate time and had apparently subscribed to a parcel being sent to me every month! Amazon wouldn't do anything about it, and it didn't show up on my account that I had signed into with my email address! (I thought I was logging into the same account just with a different login way) turns out I had to re-sign in with my phone number and I was able to cancel it!

Igotmylipstickon · 23/06/2020 15:36

Something like this happened me. I ordered something from Amazon and must have accidentally chosen to sign up to Amazon Prime because I noticed 3 months later charges coming out of my credit card account for Amazon Prime. I went on to Online Chat on the Amazon website and explained the position. They apologised and said they would refund it & cancel the signup. (I kept a copy of the chat). Next month, no refund received and I was charged again. Got back on to them and a different person on the Chat sorted it out. They asked for the reference number on my credit card for the transaction, so hopefully your son will have that to give them. The Chat facility is very hard to find - looks like they do that on purpose - but keep searching as it is there.

Livpool · 23/06/2020 15:36

He needs to stop all continuous transactions on his card - all debit cards can be linked to one account. If he rings the bank they will sort that.

Amazon Nate usually much better at refunding though so I would keep at that x

SnaccidentsHappen · 23/06/2020 15:40

Op can't report it as fraud, her son is 16 he needs to do it himself

imamum21 · 23/06/2020 15:42

email [email protected] and explain everything they may be able to help also explain to the bank its fraud if he didnt sign up to it

Original poster
daylightrobbery · 23/06/2020 15:42

Thanks for all suggestions. It's too late to report card as lost/stolen I think as he cancelled it a month ago. The iPhone accounts/passwords is a good suggestion to look for a forgotten login. Hand on heart I don't think it is fraud, I think he has probably tried to play the free trial system and got his comeuppance. It is a valuable lesson though.

OP posts:
LionKingOrTigerKing · 23/06/2020 15:44

If he's used Amazon himself within the last 12 months, he would need to raise a visa dispute with his bank, he hasn't authorised these transactions and the company isn't willing to help so the bank should be able to log that for you, you may need proof that you have tried to resolve the issue yourself, so I would keep any emails, and screen shot any live chats that you do. Amazon prime is a recurring payment, so if the bank cancel any recurring payments it then your son may not be able to use his bank card for Amazon In future. Amazon are usually pretty good at refunding it themselves though.

I work for a bank/building society 😬

Toastandjams · 23/06/2020 16:01

@daylightrobberyi don’t think you can open another amazon account with free prime trial and use the same debit card.
I tried in past and it said no.

FinallyHere · 23/06/2020 16:05

Good idea from PP suggesting he may have used a mobile number to create the new account. Worth trying to reset the password on any mobile numbers where you still have accounts.

ktp100 · 23/06/2020 16:05

Has he signed up for the free first month? If so they then start taking payments automatically if you don't cancel it before the end of the free period.

Sorry if lots of people have already said this - I'm too damn busy to RTFT!!

BobbieDraper · 23/06/2020 16:15

@ktp100

Then why post at all. The OP didnt come onto mumsnet and say "ktp100, I need your help!". If you're too busy to read what's going on, then don't post. Other people have it handled.

MyOwnSummer · 23/06/2020 16:27

Two options here:

  1. Genuine fraud, in which case it must be reported to the police
  2. Your son set up the free trial, or allowed a friend to do so.

Both issues can be solved by sitting him down in front of a computer, and asking him to make the crime report online. With a heavy dose of "make sure you tell them everything you know, and to be 100% truthful otherwise lying to the police would be a crime and you'll get a criminal record!"

Either way - problem solved. I'm not accusing the kid of lying, but some kids would lie in this situation and it means you could rule that out at the same time as getting the problem actually sorted out.

MyOwnSummer · 23/06/2020 16:29

OP it is not too late to report it as fraud. A crime is a crime, if one has indeed been committed.

Original poster
daylightrobbery · 23/06/2020 17:03

I'm just not sure and genuinely I don't think he is either! He was a victim of an in-the-flesh robbery a year ago and we've been all through the courts including being giving evidence under oath and being grilled by the defence, so reporting it wouldn't faze him if appropriate. Just not sure it is appropriate.

OP posts:
ktp100 · 23/06/2020 18:16

@BobbieDraper Oh hello, Mumsnet police!!

In contrast to me, who had a ten minute break in which I fancied whizzing through active chat and had some relevant experience in falling fowl of Amazon's aggressive Prime tactics, you must have too much time on your hands if you can be arsed to stick your fucking beak in!

Hope you enjoyed it, hun.

Also, ODFOD.

BobbieDraper · 23/06/2020 18:29

@ktp100
Eh, your advice amounted to "if you dont cancel within the free trial then they can take payment".

I think we all know that dear... and its not aggresive tactics. If you sign up for a subscription and dont cancel, then they will charge you. That's not aggresive; that's called a subscription servuce and it also wasnt relevant to this particular conversation about getting money back for a subscription linked to an account he says he does not own.

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