If you shop at Amazon you need to aware of a new scam that appears to be landing in inboxes across the UK. This latest attack uses a well-known trick which suggests customers are being locked out of accounts due to a billing issue. Shoppers are then urged to take action without delay or face all pending orders being instantly cancelled.
“The System automatically locked your Amazon account and hold all your last orders,” the latest scam email seen by Express.co.uk reads.
“We took this action, because the billing information you provided did not match the information on file the card issuer.
“To unlocked your account, you can click button below and proceed with identity verification to prove that it is your account.”
“If you do not complete the verification process within 24 hours, all pending orders will be canceled.”
To make things look more convincing, the message includes full Amazon branding along with links to the official website. Although it might look pretty real, please do not click on the “Account Verify” button if this message lands in your inbox.
Doing so will take you to a fake webpage where the cyber crooks will try and extract details such as account passwords and billing information.
Whenever you get an email like the one mentioned above it’s a good idea to check for telltale signs that it’s a scam.
Clicking on the sender’s name often reveals a fake email address and – as you may have noticed in this most recent email – there are often spelling mistakes included.
This latest message also reads “Dear customer” which is something Amazon would never do.
Amazon also has some useful advice on how to avoid scams including watching out for messages that include false urgency and asking for personal information.
“Scammers may try to persuade you to provide personal information over the phone such as addresses, payment information, account login credentials, or financial information,” Amazon said.
If you are still not sure, you can simply head to Amazon’s Message Centre.
As long as you are logged into your account, this will show all messages that have been sent to you via the firm. If things don’t match you know the email in your inbox is trick
Explaining more, Amazon added: “If you receive an email claiming to be from Amazon and are unsure if it’s from us, visit Message Centre to view all email correspondence sent by Amazon. If the email does not appear in Message Centre, then it was not sent by Amazon.”