Ahmedabad, GUJARAT — In June this year Vikram Singh, a 36-year-old Goods and Services Tax inspector in Mumbai, learnt that hackers had activated his Amazon Pay Later wallet without his permission and used his credit to clear three electricity bills worth nearly Rs 9,000 in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
In Kolkata Saurabh Kumar, a 36-year-old IT professional, found his Amazon Pay Later wallet had been mysteriously activated and used to pay two electricity bills in Punjab totalling Rs 10,000. Achal Patel, a chartered accountant from Ahmedabad, said his Amazon account was breached and the intruder paid two electricity bills in Gujarat and Punjab of Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000 using his Pay Later wallet.
Pay Later is Amazon’s latest fintech service in India where customers can buy products and pay bills on credit, and pay for all their purchases in one go at the end of the month at zero interest. The monthly base limit is Rs 10,000 and it goes up to Rs 60,000 depending on your payment record.
Since it was introduced this year, HuffPost India found Pay Later’s lax security and 60 second activation process, and Amazon’s relentless quest to make it easier and easier for users to buy more and more stuff, has spawned an innovative new form of cybercrime.
For users, the breach follows a familiar pattern: A mysterious activation of their Pay Later wallet, followed by notifications that their credit balances had been used to pay electricity and phone bills or buy digital coupons. In most cases, Amazon reversed the transactions and waived off the charges, but blocked the Pay Later service for their accounts.
0 Comments