Amazon: unauthorized charge
Match the charge to an order or subscription first; if it is fraud, report it to Amazon and to your card issuer.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 94% of 49 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- card statement line
- Amazon order history
- list of household members with card access
Steps
Use Identify an Amazon Charge and your order and subscription history to match the charge. Check Prime and Prime Video renewals and other household orders.
If it is not yours, report it through Report Something Suspicious and ask for a refund.
Tell your card issuer at once and ask for a dispute and a new card if needed.
Report fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Process
Amazon's Conditions of Use require you to contact customer service first, then submit a Notice of Dispute through Amazon's claim form and negotiate for 60 days before arbitration; JAMS administers the arbitration, and small claims court is excepted.
Source: amazon.com, verified 2026-10-12
Rules in force
- Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) negative option requirements15 U.S.C. 8401-8405
A seller that charges consumers online through a negative option feature (for example an automatic renewal or a free trial that converts to paid) must clearly disclose all material terms before taking billing information, get the consumer's express informed consent before charging, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC enforces ROSCA.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
4 citable points
- Policy
Before obtaining the consumer's billing information, the seller must provide text that "clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The seller must obtain "a consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
A post-transaction third-party seller may not charge a consumer for an online sale unless it discloses the material terms and gets express informed consent, including the consumer's full account number, before charging. An initial merchant may not pass a customer's account number or other billing information to such a seller.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
A ROSCA violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the FTC enforces ROSCA with its FTC Act powers and penalties. Report violations to the FTC.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Supervisor
Written complaint
Conditions of Use require a Notice of Dispute through Amazon's claim form and 60 days of negotiation before arbitration.
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).Public complaint
RegulatorBetter Business Bureau
Watch out
- Amazon help pages, Your Orders, A-to-z claims and the Prime cancel flow require the account holder's sign-in.
- Amazon help pages block automated fetches (HTTP 503), so an agent may need the person to read the current page.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
Amazon charged me [amount] on [date] and I did not authorize it. Use Escalate Anything to get it reversed.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin