Scam of the day – November 17, 2017 – Amazon phishing email scams

by | Nov 17, 2017 | Scam of the day, Site Related

Shopping on Amazon is extremely popular both with consumers and scammers seeking to exploit Amazon’s popularity.  With the holiday shopping season rapidly approaching scammers are sending various types of phishing emails which purport to be from Amazon that attempt to lure you into either clicking on links which can download malware, such as ransomware or keystroke logging malware or provide personal information that can be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
Here are three examples of Amazon related phishing emails presently being used.   As so often is the case with these type of phishing emails,  they do not contain your account number in the email.  Two of them contain a legitimate looking Amazon logo, but that is easy to counterfeit.

Dear Customer,                                                                                                                        We have recently upgraded our server for the help of our customers, and we recommend a new security features as part of our commitment to keep our customers safe.  For security measures the following information is required to solidify your profile. 
INFECTED LINK WAS FORMERLY LOCATED HERE.  IT HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS COPY
Your sincerely                                                                                                            
Amazon

© 2017 Amazon or its affiliates.                                                                                                All rights reserved                                                                                                                          410 Terry Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109-5210.    Reference:219862590


TIPS

There are a number of indications that these are not legitimate emails from Amazon, but instead are phishing emails. Legitimate emails from Amazon would  be directed to you by name rather than being addressed to “Dear Customer.”   As with all phishing emails, two things can happen if you click on the links provided.  Either you will be sent to a legitimate looking, but phony webpage where you will be prompted to input personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you may download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer or smartphone and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.
If you receive  emails like these and think they may possibly be legitimate, merely call the customer service number for Amazon where you can confirm that it is a scam.