Community Chat

[Moonchilde]

The following is from Mental Floss magazine:

"Holiday shopping season is in full swing, and not surprisingly, Amazon.com is a popular destination. But if you’re one of the millions of people to recently order an item from the e-commerce giant (or you’re still browsing around for present ideas), be aware of a sneaky new phishing scam. As Inc. reports, both Amazon Prime members and regular customers have reported receiving fake (yet very official-looking) emails that appear to come from Amazon asking them to re-enter their credit card information.

"The email's subject line says, “Your Amazon.com order cannot be shipped." According to AARP's blog, the full message reads:

"Hello,There was a problem processing your order. You will not be able to access your account or place orders with us until we confirm your information.click here to confirm your account. We ask that you not open new accounts as any order you place may be delayed.

"For more details, read our Amazon Prime Terms & Conditions.

"Recipients who follow the email’s instructions and click on the link are taken to a convincing "Amazon" page. There, they are invited to input their names, address, and credit card info (including the expiration and CVV security code).

Once they hit Save & Continue, they’re automatically guided to the real Amazon website.

"Hopefully you're now on high-alert, and you won't fall for this scheme. But, as AARP reminds us, you should never click on an embedded link in an email from Amazon (or, for that matter, any other company). Instead, check to see whether the items mentioned in the email are ones you've actually purchased (you can head to Amazon’s "Your Orders" section to jog your memory if need be), be suspicious of typos and spelling mistakes, and hover your cursor over any URLs provided and the sender's email address to take a close look—phishing scams will notoriously use URLs similar to the real deal.

"If you do recognize an Amazon email as fake, don’t just ignore it. The New York Times recommends reporting to them by forwarding the whole message as an attachment to stop-spoofing@amazon.com. And since phishing schemes are likely to continue (and even grow) in the weeks leading up to Christmas and Hanukkah, check out Amazon’s list of tips for avoiding payment fraud."

[Pook]

It always amazes me that anyone would fall for these types of scams.  Amazon immediately sends a confirmation followed by shipping information and if you are prime order is sent in 2 days.  If anyone suspects it even could be real then the first thing they should do is contact Amazon or check their order status.

[Trix]

The Trend Micro secruity protection is superb at flushing out these scams.  The program gives you a stern warning before opening such emails and websites.  I highly recomend this software.

[gidgetgh]

Thanks for posting this @Moonchilde.  The info was on my Facebook newsfeed last night and I let my family and friends know about it.

[Vivian]

Thanks for the warning. Isn't it just awful that some people want to scam others and cause misery? Especially at this time of year, such degenerates make me sad and angry.

[GCR18]

It is sad.  I don't give my cc number when asked via email or phone.

[Plaid Pants2]

The only time that I give my cc # over the phone is when I make the phone call.

[hckynut]

Sorry, I have more faith in my hundreds of great experiences with this company than some blog magazine's opinion/study/research, whatever! 

No wonder "Fake News" seems to be the new theme in a lot of the media. Believe what you will, I'll stick with my real experiences.

hckynut(john)

[Moonchilde]

You're welcome, @gidgetgh.  I shop on Amazon constantly, and know others do too. I especially took note that this is apparently a well-done, no typos or grammatical errors type of phishing, so nothing stands out as fake.

I put it in my FB feed and a friend who is the computer guru and data person at her accounting firm passed it on in her feed as well.

[Moonchilde]

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@hckynut wrote:

Sorry, I have more faith in my hundreds of great experiences with this company than some blog magazine's opinion/study/research, whatever! 

No wonder "Fake News" seems to be the new theme in a lot of the media. Believe what you will, I'll stick with my real experiences.

hckynut(john)

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Sorry, I have no clue what you're responding to. The article was not any sort of opinion/research/study "whatever" in any way. It is a warning for a phishing scam.

You might want to read and understand what is written before sounding off on something that has nothing to do with what was posted.