The Halifax County Sheriff’s Office reported today several citizens have called to complain of emails and texts from a purported Amazon representative saying their account had suspicious or potentially fraudulent activity.

Chief Deputy Scott Hall said the messages are asking that you call or respond immediately to the customer service representative. “Please remember, before taking any other actions to check your banking account and your Amazon account to verify the potential suspicious transactions. If there are any transactions there that you are not responsible for, notify your bank immediately. If there is no suspicious activity, do not respond to the bogus text or email.”

Hall said if a person does respond they will be asked to purchase gift cards which the caller or sender tries to convince the potential victim that it will stop the fraudulent purchase and track IP addresses used for the transaction. “This is a scam. Do not provide information to the scammers. If you are truly a victim, you will not need to spend money to recover money. Should you have any question or feel that you have become a victim, contact your local law enforcement agency.”