Becoming a victim of fraud is a traumatic experience that can have a devastating impact. And as greater numbers of people turn to carrying out essential daily tasks online, email scams have become more common as criminals try to obtain individuals' personal information.
Last year the Office for National Statistics published the results of a poll revealing that half of adults had reported receiving a scam message in the month before being asked. This came amid a general rise in fraud, with a 25% rise on pre-pandemic levels - to around 4.5 million offences - in the year to March 2022.
E-commerce giant Amazon is one of the most commonly used and trusted companies being used as the face of these email scams. With this in mind, online business resource Webretailer has put together some tips for spotting an email scam and highlighted the most common Amazon scams to watch out for.
Tips for spotting an email scam
An unusual email address
Looking at the email address of the sender is one of the easiest ways to make sure that it is a legitimate email from Amazon. Scammers will often have a random email address made up of numbers and letters, as opposed to it coming from an email ending in ‘@amazon.com’.
Urgent and threatening messages
Scammers often use the urgency of a time limit to pressure the recipients to respond or take immediate action. This can include warnings about accounts being locked and urgent action being required. This will usually require you to click on a link to perform the action, however, Amazon will never send emails that contain threatening language.
Check for spelling errors and grammatical mistakes
Usually, a tell-tale sign of a scam email is poor spelling, grammar and sentence structure. This can be due to scammers not paying close attention to these details. Genuine company emails would be proofread for typos and similar issues.
Addressing you generically or by your email
Scam emails will avoid using your name as they either don’t have that information, or alternatively, they are sending a generic email out to a large number of people. Because of this, the email will often be addressed as ‘dear customer’ or ‘dear email address’.
Look for official communication
Compare your email to other emails you have received in the past, cross reference the language and even the branding of the email like logos. Alongside the email not coming from the usual address Amazon would normally contact you by, scammers might also slip up by using old logos, or language that doesn’t fit Amazon’s tone of voice.
The most common Amazon scams to be aware of
Phishing emails
One of the most frequent email scams that do the rounds pretending to be from Amazon is a phishing email. These emails will always ask you to click on a fraudulent link in the email to take action on a number of things, from verifying your account information, to updating your payment details or confirming your login details. This link can lead to a phishing site or download malware onto your device.
Fake order confirmations
The fake order is another common scam many people fall victim to, due to frequently using Amazon to order items. The email will usually claim that you’ve placed an order and that you need to click the link to confirm your previous purchase - however, clicking on the link will allow the scammers to access your information.
Tech support scams
Another scam that creates a sense of urgency and can trick people into taking action is the tech support scam. This email will usually state that your account has been hacked and that you need to type in your old password and reset your password - actually handing over the information to your account.
Refund emails
A scam that allows hackers quick access to your bank details is a refund scam, which includes an email claiming that you are owed a refund from Amazon. This type of scam will usually request your payment information to receive a refund, but this information will then be used for identity theft or unauthorised transactions.
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