Consumer Alert
Were you charged for Amazon Prime without your permission?
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Online shopping can be convenient and easy. But with sometimes lots of screens before you get to check-out, you could wind up signed up for a service without even knowing it. What’s worse, it can be tough to cancel. Read on to learn how to protect yourself from unwanted services and charges.
Today, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Amazon, saying the company violated the law by enrolling people in its Amazon Prime subscription service without their permission, continuing to charge them, and making it hard to cancel.
The FTC says the company used a series of hurdles — known as “dark patterns” — to make it hard for customers to understand that they were starting a Prime subscription. These dark patterns also made it hard for people to cancel their Prime subscriptions by making them hunt for the right place to cancel online, and then click through complicated extra pages to cancel. Often, consumers would call Amazon’s customer service, only to be referred back to the website to cancel, making the process even more frustrating.
To help avoid unwanted services and charges when you shop online:
- Watch what goes into your shopping cart. Even if you empty your cart and leave the site without completing your purchase, you still could have been enrolled in a subscription service.
- Watch for pre-checked boxes. They may sign you up for a product or service.
- Carefully review your order before completing a transaction. If something got added that you don’t want, make sure to remove it.
- Make sure you didn’t get charged for something you don’t want. Check your order confirmation to see. If you did, contact the company to cancel and get a refund. Make sure you get — and keep — the written confirmation.
- Watch your bank or credit card statements. If you’re in a subscription, you’ve tried to cancel, and the company won’t stop charging your account, dispute it with your credit or debit card issuer.
- Look for auto-renewals. Unless you cancel, you’ll continue to be charged.
If a company signed you up for a subscription service without your permission, or if you have problems with canceling a subscription service, tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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Yes thanks for letting me know, is there anything you can send me to help resolve these isues I get a lot of these notifacions from Amazon support please ,Thanks
I am currently dealing with the same scam I bought a 10 dollar item in 2021 and have been getting charged ever since then. I recently noticed the charges as I was reviewing my card statement which I never really do, but needed too track another payment from an international seller and it caught my eye. It took me 4-6 hrs and 5 different agents to then having too curse and scream for a supervisor. When I got one they denied and denied then once I threatened a lawsuit they removed it. Then beforei hung up i asked 1 more question ( how many months have I been getting this charge low and behold a whole year plus.. I am currently still waiting for all refunds..I will never use Amazon again..Americans have been scammed
I was charged as well. How do I get involved in this lawsuit?
Amazon charged me a month EARLY.
Roku for Disney also charged me a month early. It was only $85.39 last year. Somehow I received notice it would be $109.99 this year, but they charged me $117.42 w/o notifying me at all. That is too expensive.
I ordered many items (expensive and inexpensive) from Amazon. I sit and read thoroughly when I see anything to do with Prime. It is a pain to take the time to do this, but I know if I don't I'll be charged by Amazon for something I don't want. Amazon will loose in the end - it seems the company is greedy.
Ive been calling them Scamazon and Scamazon Slime for years now. On top of this, the customer service reps have straight lied to me directly by saying they will price match and cover the difference for reordering an item they cancelled during the Preparing For Shipping stage (they said it was out of stock and to reorder it from the marketplace seller which costed substantially more and assured me they would cover the difference in the form of promo credit)
thats just 1 single blatantly false promise they have made to me, there are many more but listing everhthing in a reply probably won't make any difference
OMG. Not only did i keep getting charged for Amazon Prime i didn't ask for , they would bill my card they did it the day after each month j paid my credit card payment . What's worse is i had no idea this was going on because i mysteriously lost access to one of my Google accounts which happened to be the one which email address used in connection with my employment with Amazon.. i finally got access back after over 2 fricken years. I still don't know what happened. Maybe Amazon knows
Your lawsuit is bogus. Amazon prime is a great program. I always get a notice prior to renewal that clearly informs me about the membership renewal. If you ruin the Prime program you will have tens of millions of consumers who will be outraged. Your website encourages people to report against Amazon. It does not make it easy to report favorable comments. In essence you are doing what you accuse Amazon of doing.
I cancelled Amazon Prime in May of 2023, and it was to end June 1st. I was shocked to see that on June 1st that I was charged again for the amount for a prime membership. This surprised me as I was quite thorough with the cancellation process as I'm a very frugal person and am very thorough when it comes to subscription costs. I have cancelled again, although curiously this time I was only presented the option to cancel on July 1st. Last month I had a couple options, another was to cancel effective immediately.
Clearly something going on here.
I was charged a few times by Amazon for them signing me up when I tried to order from them and they were not the only ones that did that and the companies that pull that always make it hard to get your money back or say that there’s nothing that they can do about it
This happend to me in 201, I use the Audible since Nov. 2015.
I was charged in 2013, 3 times for my sbscrition and each time I went back to cancle...this was not happing. I actually recieved a prime time credit card, I did not order, they then started charging all my perchaces on it, after I requested to use my own card..
Confusion set in, and after spending more on the phone with trying to straighten the account out I chose not to use Amazon at all, untill 2015 when I purched a car with out a CD player... I chose to go with Audible. Then the party started all over again..I then decided to give it a try..and yes I ask how much being direct became very confusing. Since I wanted to keep my audible account I used the Prime account, which lead to free streaming of videos..which I thought I would try, I have been hacked into several times..To this day I disput on a monthly bsis the charges I find in my bank account, not understsnding them myself.. I believe I now pay 15.00 a month for Audible plu the additional 15 for the membership..and continue to disput any charges I see monthly that are not mine, along with changing my password on a monthly basis.. You may say after 3 attemps to step out of the circle I decided to use the subscrition and yes at 139.00 a month... I have shared this with a friend, may I say she has been hacked 2xs on her card. we have also had complications in this last year from 3rd party sellers, the quality has been not the same along with not recieving the order.. Not saying Amozon left us hanging, but just the opisite.. they acted immediately. with a refund and attemted to replace the order
I was changed on numerous occasions for monthly Prime subscriptions. I had used Amazon Fresh Delivery Service which did not require any membership. Only because of my Bank notifying me of changes to my account, was I made aware of these transactions. I doubt I will use Amazon Services again. Very Bad Customer Service Amazon!!! Shame on you!!
One way I maintain control of my subscriptions is to use PayPal whenever possible. Unlike one of my banks which charged me $27 for a "stop payment" in order to cancel a company's access to my checking account, PayPal will produce a list of all the vendors able to make charges on my account and has a simple process for canceling any or all of them.
It happened to me as well a couple years ago I had to have my bank change my bank card to stop it I haven't bought anything since still have the app with my info on it but won't use it because of that
Even though I usually evade all the techniques used by Amazon and decline Prime memberships, I recently got enrolled and have been trying repeatedly to cancel. When I called them the operator was evasive and kept saying he needed more information to verify my account and I needed to click on a link to complete the cancelation. I'm glad FTC is doing something about this. I told "Fernando" at Amazon that I would be filing an FTC complaint.
I was charged by Amazon and never gave them permission to charge the card I used. I disputed it with customer service, I was never refunded.
And I cancelled my account. Because of their shady practices. Another company that did that to me is
Comcast /Xfinity not only did they charge without consent they double charge according to their billing schedule.
If the FTC wins which they will. How does that help us or how do we participate in the claim. I have my evidence. The correspondence, the charges made, cancelling the account reason, and them trying to get me back as a customer.
In reply to I was charged by Amazon and… by Dorothy Chrostowski
I feel like sdge did this to my mom
They do it every couple months for me and I have to call and cancel it and request a refund
In reply to They do it every couple… by Richard West
I have several times in reported Spam without me knowing it was in my name. I'm just confused about why would Amazon Prime membership fraudulent Activity By signing me up for that. Against My unauthorized consent. Name, address, dob, phone number and email. Please help.
15.80 was being taken from my account twice a month when I called Amazon customer service they said the first was not a withdrawal they were "pinging" my account - the account was 15.80 lighter with every ping! I don't have the kind of bank account where 15.00 just blends into the rest of the transactions. I caught it at the first of the year it had been going on for a year prior - the Bank stopped it but they are still investigating.
Yes I was charged with a AMAZON PRIME ACCOUNT Without me knowing that. I have been charged fraudulent charges for up to $3000.00/2566.00/@amazonprime.com
For thee last 3months amazon prime has been charging me $16.04 and I don't even have prime how do I stop this
My card was charged for Prime for years. The card company sent hard cover statements so I can see I was charged $14.14 per month for years. Amazon reimbursed me for some of these charges. After the last phone call, Amazon said " we will reimburse you $ 90 and not to your card, we will give you a credit for you to use on Amazon". After that, I didn't investigate if I had prior charges before the other charges. Amazon said their computers don't go back that far !!!
I know about those pre-heated boxes! My insurance company has a precheck box for automatic deduction for my premium each month. I have to make sure that I uncheck that box. There is always a scam somewhere.
They even charge u for prime video and music which is suppose to be free with prime subscription. I have cancled and still being charged even though I cancled few times.
Looks like you have lots of evidence but this Amazon Prime scam certainly happened to me. I have the email and credit card statement trail if that would help. That said, I am a Canadian resident so I shall also look for Canadian authorities to censure this company as well.
Yes, I ordered a $29 bottle of perfume and was charged for Amazon Prime for over 4 years without knowing because I didn't check my statement. I'll never order from them again!
I did not subscribe to
Amazon Prime...
Please unsubsidized immediately
I tried to set up my account first but was repeatedly forced to start order first, online.
When I called with the question of "please explain what the difference was in the 4 shipping options, I was only instructed to click a button with no explanation. As soon as I placed my order even like items were seperated for shipping costs.
This business of free market is also now free criminal activity.
No Business Should Ever Be Able To Use Such Deplorable Tactics! All companies do this and in turn is breaking Americans.
Amazon has been charging me and taking money out of my account without my permission.
I am done with amazon after charging me for overseas prime membership and then
the gouging and inflating prices to no end they really need to be shut down. Then we need
real stores that are not run by 1 company. We getting so ripped off it isnt funny.
I was charged for Amazon prime on my old account without my permission when I already pay for prime on my new account. Watch your bank accounts carefully and make sure you remove your cards from any old Amazon accounts.
Over the past year or longer I continued to be charged with Prime Video. This occurred several times contacted my bank and had to change my debit cards. This usually occurred shortly after I made a purchase on Amazon.
I also get 20 phone calls a day from business, automobile people I never heard of.
My ex wife uses my SSSAN, TX DL and my address and phoned number to run up debts.
I was being charged for over a year for Prime and didn't even know it never even agreed to it and on top of that once I did start using the Prime Membership since I was paying for it anyways they wind up talking me into getting a secured credit card which I did and then every time I tried to make the payment they would decline it even though there was plenty of money in the account I tried it from three different accounts until finally they closed the account and put it against my credit record taking my security deposit and damaging my credit even though I made several attempts to make my monthly payments even contacted them they kept using the excuse that it was my financial institution even though I spoke to all three different financial institutions that I tried to make payments from that had plenty of funding in the accounts and they said that it was definitely not on their behalf they had no idea why they were being declined that it was being done on the half of synchrony and Amazon
I knew I was paying for Prime but I didn't know that Amazon had something called Amazon Pay. Apparently, you are automatically signed up for it when you get Prime. This allows Amazon to pay bills where the subscription, went through them or not, from ANY card you have on your account. Even if that card isn't your. Ex: I did a free trial for Peacock TV and Paramount Plus through my Amazon Fire Stick which is plugged into my TV. I forgot to cancel the subscription and I didn't have the 10.92 and 9.62 on my card so I they deducted the money from my boyfriends account which I had used months before to do an order. We didn't notice right away so it went on for months. We only watched the channels that one time for one particular show. I actually subscribed to Walmart + which gave me Paramount free. They would not refund my money saying I had the app downloaded and had used the service before. If I did I didn't realize it. I use YouTube TV. It ended up being around $100 we lost because I was opted into a "perk" I never knew about.
Then, with there music service, with a Prime account you get free music. What they don't tell you is if you're using the service on one of your echo dots and someone tries to use it on another dot it will ask if you want to stop the other device. If you say no it will ask if you want to play on both devices. Of course you will say yes. What you just did without knowing it is sign up for music unlimited which is 17.11 a month and automatically taken from whichever card they can get the money from at the moment. No refund either because you used it. They know because they can see your phone history or somehow know what apps you have and how often you have signed on. I've lost tons because of that because I would cancel by phone because of course, there is no way to find a cancelation page on the site anywhere. Then I would unknowingly do it again because I didn't understand that it was tricking me. I thought my kids were doing it. That happened for 2 years. I finally called a was finally told it was being activated through dot. Was never told that once before on purpose I am positive. There is so much more. They have taken money from my PayPal balance, paid with my cashapp balance. There have been times I couldn't pay a bill because money was missing where they took it. I was a huge Amazon shopper. Spent thousands. Multiple packages a day for years. That's not the case anymore. They have stolen from me and my kids when we needed It most with the way things are today. Money is tight and those 17 an 10 dollar amount matter to a single mom. Sometimes it takes that to finish the electronic or for the last of the groceries. Gas to get to the groceries even.
I just thought you might want to include this in the investigation because it's really a related issue I think. I've tried the BBB and gotten no results so I didn't know what else to do. I know I won't be able to get my money back but maybe this will keep it from happening to the next victim of this retail giants scams and tricks.
Ty
I'm so glad you are taking this up with Amazon. I even tried to send separate emails to figure out how to cancel and never got a response.
I tried multiple times to cancel my account and so did my mother. The issue was her Amazon credit card was attached to me some how. So every time I ordered something it would open her account and charge the card she tried to cancel.
For the past 2 yrs every time I would load my debit card prime .... AMAZON!!!! would take my money I wanted to purchase other things but as soon as load my card they take it thousands!!!!! And it keeps happening
They have taken thousands from me over the past 2 years they need to pay !!! Every time I loaded my card they would help them selves to my money
I keep having to unsubscribe to Amazon Prime and also now luna?
Some sort of gaming subscription via Amazon. It is preying on people not looking at their bank account outgoings. It must be at least morally wrong if not illegal.
If it's not illegal, it should be.
Phil Jones in Liverpool UK.
Shame on you Amazon....,
Amazon did this to us for the second time. Most recently it happened yesterday. Now I need to once again get on the phone with them to try to cancel. What a hassle.
I not only am a victim but twice. I had to cancel cards to get away from it. It isn't just Amazon. I am currently a victim of another one. The constant is Citibank. All scams happening to me are them. I did Missouri attorney general complaints each time for them to ignore it and close the case. At this second, I am dealing with it again. I kept all cancelled cards and statements. I should be deposed as I have your whole case documented. You need to look into Citibank. They protect this operation. Im positive now after 3.
I have had many problems with Amazon Prime taking Money out my fiancé account just because it was on my Amazon Account witch lead him into over drafting and I got charged for Amazon prime more than once a month like I was Susposed been Subscribed only for Me
I just noticed charges since January 2023 for audible and something called the Great courses signature collection. Not idea how they got there. When I called they said there's no way of seeing where it came from.. ie device. Now I really don't know what to think about this company.
This is all extremely validating to read about! I was so embarrassed to find that last year I had been paying for two Amazon Prime accounts for six months. I’d noticed a few-ish charges, but had brushed it off to my Amazon shopping account plus my Prime streaming account. Nay!
When I dug (and dug, and dug), and failed to find a proper cancellation number, I gave in and dialed the first number I saw, and asked to be rerouted. I WAS apologized to, and told I would be reimbursed. My belief in humanity restored; my hope in customer service renewed!!
Until my charge was reversed. Yes, my singular charge - I received one month in return. Wah-wahhhh.
But y’all know what? It’s so much better than receiving nothing!
Best of luck, everybody!
Yes, a couple of times starting a few years ago. When I searched for the products that I wanted, they all came up with "free shipping." I don't remember seeing anything about Amazon prime anywhere on it, but apparently by purchasing the products that are advertised with "free shipping" I was automatically signing up for Amazon prime and didn't know it until I started checking the charges on my card. Since the last instance was probably well over a year ago, I didn't remember how much they stole from me.
Yes I was charged 14.99 without my permission on 6/26/23
My mom read me this very article and so I cancelled my account since I rarely use Amazon anymore. Well, they still charged me. I’ve since removed all payments methods from there. I can’t close my account because I have a book on direct publishing by Amazon. Ugh! I’ve paid $15.89 a month for wayyyy too long! I don’t even enjoy Amazon anymore because they jack up prices and sell from foreign countries. I can do all that on Temu without the price gouging!
Had the worst experience with amazon, for subcribing me for things like music digital kinlde audible for a year and i hadnt noticed , they kept promising me a refund , i still have the chats with there customer service , they lied to me for three months about mailing me my 215$ then sent me 10$ , sick joke huh. There customer service does not help and they do not want to give money owed , yet make millions off of people. I wanna know where to sign up for this lawsuit/settlement.
I agree, they take days to deliver my packages. Also, their drivers be delivering to the wrong apartment, I keep calling them about this matter and until today it still has not been fixed . I’ve been charged for Amazon prime for the past 3 months , yet I had to stop purchasing with them because my neighbor kept receiving my packages because apparently some people don’t know the difference between apartment # 11 and # 111….Pathetic!