Amazon fined $2.25M for failing to aid identity theft victims

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Amazon to pay a $2.25 million fine to resolve allegations that the e-commerce giant obstructed identity theft victims from accessing critical account information. According to a Bloomberg report, the FTC’s complaint charges Amazon with violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by repeatedly refusing to provide customers with purchase records tied to fraudulent accounts.

The FTC filing paints a troubling picture of the support experience for identity theft victims, describing it as a “Kafkaesque sequence” where representatives demanded victims name the person who opened the fraudulent account before releasing any records. In one case, a victim was forced to guess the thief’s name more than 30 times, yet Amazon still refused to remove the victim’s credit card information from the compromised account. The agency also alleges that Amazon routinely failed to respond to victims’ record requests within the 30-day window mandated by the FCRA.

An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company has “resolved this matter with the FTC” and has already “implemented process improvements for customers who believe they may be victims of identity theft.” The settlement closes the probe without an admission of wrongdoing, but it underscores ongoing scrutiny over how tech platforms handle consumer protection obligations.