Fake Amazon Receipts Targeting Online Merchants

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December 13, 2010 by Rich Whittle | 0 Comments

PC Mag is reporting that researchers at GFI Software, formerly Sunbelt Software, have uncovered a scam that generates fake Amazon.com receipts in order to dupe merchants into paying unwarranted refunds.

The online tool asks for the details of the fake transaction to enter in the fake receipt, and then generates an HTML file containing the receipt. The main point of this tool seems to be scamming third-party party merchants on Amazon out of refunds and products.

But the merchant would have to be really careless and just trust the data on the receipt without checking it against their own records, as GFI’s Christopher Boyd notes in a blog post.

“The careful seller has little to worry about – many of the items in the fake printout are convincing as a whole, but once you start digging into the details a little bit it quickly falls apart,” Boyd wrote. “However, it seems this program has started a little wave of imitations.”

Those who doubt the authenticity of receipts they might receive should cross-check their records with those kept by Amazon.