Have you received an email, phone call, or text message from a supposed “Amazon” agent? These notifications advise that your Amazon account has been hacked or mention suspicious activity. It’s a scam.
Scammers will do (and say) just about anything to trick you into believing them. Other common tactics for this type of scam involve sending the following notifications:
- Holds on your Amazon Prime account
- Unauthorized orders for large (or small) dollar amounts
- Lost packages
- Confirmation of your Amazon account
- Fake order invoices
How to Avoid Amazon Scams
- Never call a phone number provided to you over the phone. Hang up, and only contact Amazon through information listed on their legitimate website. Amazon will also have “help” or “chat” features on their website or once you have successfully logged into your account.
- If the caller tells you to download a screen sharing application or to provide remote access, stop and hang up. Amazon will never ask for remote access to your computer.
- Amazon will never call your bank directly or advise that they will transfer the phone call to your bank directly. Scammers will ask for the phone numbers on the back of your credit or debit cards so that they can spoof the number of the bank to appear more legitimate.
- If you are concerned about an email you’ve received about a supposed “order,” login to your Amazon account directly and review the “My Orders” section. If there is nothing of concern, the email was a scam.
- If the caller tells you to purchase gift cards (even Amazon gift cards), send a wire transfer, purchase cryptocurrency or to send a Zelle or Venmo (P2P) transfer, STOP, it is a scam.
Amazon provides the following information regarding scams directly from their website: