Warning: Amazon Scam Email!

I wanted to give a quick post warning anyone to be careful about scam emails, particularly one about Amazon I got this morning.  The email was from ‘Auto-Confirm Revision Amazon’ and titled ‘Your Amazon Service Update’.  Here is a snapshot of the email I received:

It states that: *Your Amazon Account service has been suspended for security review.  Please follow the link below to unblock yourself.  Failure to validate your Amazon Account service will result to loss of your account.

this is a scam! Do not click the link!

If you receive such an email be warned it is a scam email.  There are several red flags that show this is a scam, despite the genuine amazon logo at the top:

1. This email came to my thehkat@yahoo.co.uk email address.  This is my public email account and NOT the same one I use to log into amazon.
2. The email hasn’t been sent to me but to ‘undisclosed-recipients’
3. The biggest red flag is who this email is from.  When viewing the contact details I can see the sender address is gramilne69@hotmail NOT amazon itself.
4. If you are able to hover over the link to click with a mouse you can see it leads to an unknown site not amazon.

I hope if you receive this email or one that is similar you will now know it is a scam.

What about other scam emails?

Scam emails are very common these days and even the best and smartest of us are able to fall for a scam.  So what should you do if you receive an email which seems to come from a legitimate source such as amazon or your bank?  The first thing is DON’T PANIC!  These types of scam emails try to lure people with the fear that their account has been compromised, that you’re going to lose your money, etc.  Second, remember that companies will NEVER ask you for your password…not EVER!  So if you are being asked for your password and other details don’t give them.

You can confidently ignore any scam email.  But if you are still worried you can contact the company in question directly.  DO NOT follow any links or call any numbers in the email you have received.  Instead go to the official site checking the address in the browser or call the company using a number you have on official emails/ documents/ official website.  I logged into amazon (both UK and US) perfectly fine, my account wasn’t blocked in any way.  Ask the company if they have sent you this email, most likely they will tell you no and that will be that.  If you are worried you can change your account details on the official site, but this will likely be unnecessary, afterall that’s why the scammers wanted you to give them your password in the first place, because they don’t know it.

If you are worried about scam emails or not sure if you’ve received one you can also ask some friends or people online about them.

So I hope this will help stop anyone falling into the trap of these scammers.  Have you been the victim of scam emails?  There’s no shame in falling for a scam, if you have though I’d like us to share some stories.  Perhaps anyone else had any other scam emails you’d like to warn others about?  Any snapshots you have of such emails (erasing your own details of course) you can send to my email address: thehkat@yahoo.co.uk and I can post them up as more warnings for others out there.

Whatever happens stay calm and stay safe on the internet :).