Last week I received this email, which looked like it came from Amazon, and was sent to the email address I use with my Kindle.
Something about it made me suspicious, though. So I did not click on the link in the e-mail, but went to my computer (where I also have an extra anti-virus program installed) and opened my amazon account the usual way, via the website, to check my recent orders and purchases. I had no problem logging in and could not see anything suspicious there. The only thing I buy from them is e-books and I have no subscriptions or 'pending orders'.
To be on the safe side, I followed instructions about suspected spam on the website and forwarded the (spam) email to Amazon for inspection.
I received an auto-reply saying (among other things):
In all likelihood, the message you received was not sent to you by Amazon.com. We strongly advise that you *not* send any information about yourself back to this individual (especially your credit card number or any personal information).
--- if you are ever uncertain of the validity of an e-mail, even from us, don't click on any supplied links - instead, type our web site address --- directly into your browser and follow the regular links to Your Account. Many unscrupulous spoofers mislead consumers by displaying one URL while taking the visitor to another. By typing in a well-known address you can avoid this trick. --- Many spammers and spoofers use programs that randomly generate e-mail addresses, in the hope that some percentage of these randomly-generated addresses will actually exist.
This week I received the same spam-email again. I followed the same procedure (including informing Amazon). (Again no actual problem with my account.)
Today I received a similar kind of threatening spam email, but this time giving McAfee (antivirus protection company) as sender, saying that my subscription had expired and should be renewed immediately. As I never had any subscription with McAfee (but with another company, recently renewed), I sent this one straight to my email spam folder, though. (It also looked more amateurish than the "Amazon" one - far too many exclamation marks etc.)
These kinds of fake messages make me not only tired but angry, as they play on our fears of already having been attacked/swindled etc.
I think most bloggers are probably aware of it, but it can't be repeated too often: Do not click on links in emails that seem in any way strange. Much better to be on the safe side and go to the website the usual way.
10 comments:
Oh gosh, all of a sudden you are having terrible luck with these crooks! Hopefully this post will save someone else from being swindled.
Funny how you got a spam comment on a post about spam!
O.K. had the same McAffee spam message this morning. I get the fake Amazon ones every now and then. Looking at the actual URL usually shows very quickly that the message does not really come from the pretended sender.
this is the link to my post on the 15th about this same thing, there are links to read that tell you what to watch for. you are right, we need to know these things. USA is being slammed with them and they are coming from a bot farm in Russia. I do not click on anything in email, even if I know it is a good one. i always go to the address I have booke marked. i got both of these several times that you mentioned here. mcafee is antoehr that I get several a day. here is the link https://snapperone.blogspot.com/2022/03/alert-for-you.html
How strange - this morning I haven't been able to access my Kindle. Every time I swipe to open up the device I have blank page, but that's after the ads for books I might like, so it's still working. Kindle books are the only items I ever buy through Amazon. I haven't, as yet, had any similar messages to yours about my account, but that doesn't mean they are not on the way!
I am plagued with nuisance calls from mobile phone companies, and Microsoft, which began to come earlier and earlier in the day, on both my landline and my mobile, until I had to remove the bedside phone for a while. Thanks to Google I've learned to recognise most of the scam numbers, so never answer these calls, but they are still persistent. When Covid first took hold it was blissfully quiet for a time, but now they are back again.
Ginny, I hope so too. And if nothing else, it might serve as reminder to myself in the future...
Spam comment removed now, Meike. (I wonder if they trawl for the word 'spam'?) I've not come across the fake Amazon before. The annoying thing is that even when suspecting it's probably fake, in a case like this I still feel that I have to check up on it to make sure; and even if they don't manage to steal anything else from you, they still steal time! :(
Thanks Sandra. I did read that post of yours - sometimes I read blogs on my phone or tablet using the Feedly app and then don't always get round to commenting (which I prefer to do from the computer with a proper keyboard as I find it "fiddly" commenting from the smaller devices, especially the phone...)
CG, had that happened to me *at the same time* as a fake email, I'd probably have been seriously stressed. I'd like to think that I'd still have contacted Amazon via their webpage rather than clicked on the link in the email, though.
Have you tried restarting your Kindle? That has so far been enough to sort out similar problems for me. Could be an update gone wrong or something like that?
Recently I had problems with my Audible app, and when I tried reinstalling the app to solve the problem, I lost my library. Their online customer service chat quickly helped me sort it out though. When reinstalling the app, I had been auto-redirected to the wrong domain (the UK branch rather than .com) They gave me instructions where to change that, though. The problem was solved and I was reconnected to my Audible library.
I'm not sure why but I can't recall when I last got that sort of spam.
Who knows how they choose their victims, Graham - or manage to slip through various spam filters... I'm happy to report that so far, I've not had any more since these.
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