This New Scam Is Leaving Voicemails Saying You Owe $1,000
Someone stealing your credit card information is the worst. Opening your statement to see costly charges you missed is stressful, and canceling your card and managing all your associated subscriptions is a nightmare. So if you get a call about unauthorized charging for a brand new iPhone, you probably want to get to the bottom of it. Here’s the thing: It’s probably a scam.
I speak from experience: my wife keeps getting calls from unknown numbers, all leaving voicemails about charges for iPhones. The voicemail begins with what sounds like standard hold music. Suddenly, a voice appears, saying something like: “This is Amazon. This call is to authorize payment of $999 for the recent Apple iPhone 16 Pro order to your account. If you do not authorize this payment, please press ‘one’ to speak to our customer support representative.” Your call may also concern “the payment of $1,099 for the recent order of Apple iPhone 17 Pro to your account.”
We are inundated with calls, and besides the payment amount and the specific iPhone model, the rest of the message is the same. As you might expect, no charges of this type are actually present either on our Amazon account or in our credit card history. That’s because no one bought an iPhone in our name or using our financial information: it was simply a scam.
If we had answered the phone and pressed “one” to speak with a “customer service representative”, or called the number again after listening to the voicemail, here’s what likely would have happened: The “representative” would have assured us that they would be able to dispute the charges, but of course they would need some information from us first. Maybe they would have needed us to confirm the credit card information and asked us to read our numbers out loud. Maybe they should make sure we actually own the Amazon account in question and ask for our two-factor authentication code to “confirm our identity.” Either way, the scammers would have preyed on our concern over accusations aimed at extracting a certain type of sensitive information from us, all for their own financial gain. If we had called back and complied, we almost assuredly would have given the scammers the money we thought they were helping us recover.
What to do if you receive this voicemail
If you receive a voicemail like this, don’t call them back. If you pick up the phone and receive this message, do not press “one”; hang up. You are definitely being scammed and there is no risk in ignoring the caller completely.
What do you think of it so far?
If you want to verify their claims, don’t involve the caller at all. Instead, go to your Amazon account and check your order history. You will be able to see if such iPhones have been ordered under your account and, if so, you can cancel the order here. Likewise, check your credit card history: if you don’t see a charge for an iPhone, there haven’t been any. If you see one, contact the credit card company directly through their official contact details.
Scammers rely on pressure tactics that stress you out and make you feel like time is running out. This is rarely the case. While it may seem common for companies like Amazon to call their customers about large charges, that’s really not the case. If you ever receive unsolicited communications from someone claiming to represent a company you belong to, you can always end the conversation and contact us directly yourself. If you contact official Amazon customer service or your credit card company, they will be able to confirm or deny the claim for you.
Even if you can block the number, it may not do much good. Every time we get a call it comes from a different number, so I assume they don’t reuse numbers when they call you back. Instead, you should strongly consider using one of Apple’s built-in anti-spam tools. If you’re using iOS 26, you can choose to have your iPhone screen calls from unknown numbers and ask for information before sending you the call. No matter which version of iOS you have, you can also choose to mass silence unknown callers, so you’ll never be interrupted by a caller who isn’t in your contacts.
