According to this email, which purports to be from Amazon, your account will be limited if you don’t click a link to update your details within 72 hours.
Supposedly, the account update is required because “some informations on your acount appears to be missing or incorrect”.
The email includes the Amazon logo to make it appear legitimate, but the glaring spelling and grammatical errors should be enough to immediately raise a red flag.
Here’s a screenshot of the scam email:
Clicking the link opens a fraudulent website in your browser. The fake site features the Amazon logo and footer links to create the illusion that it is genuine. It furthers this illusion by using a website address that includes the word “amazon”. In fact, the site has no connection to Amazon, but the seemingly Amazon-related web address, the logo, and other elements may be enough to convince less Internet-savvy visitors that it is genuine.
Once on the site, you will be asked to sign in to your Amazon account via a fake login form:
After entering your sign in details, the first of two bogus account verification forms will appear. The first form asks for your name and address, your phone number, your date of birth, and your OSID number:
If you supply the requested information and click the “Update” button, a second form will then request your credit card details:
Next, the site will ask you to upload a photo of the front and back of your credit card:
The scam site will then briefly display a message claiming that you have successfully verified your account before automatically redirecting your browser to the genuine Amazon website.
Criminals can now use the log in information you supplied to take control of your Amazon account and make purchases with your default Amazon payment system. They can also use your credit card number to make fraudulent transactions outside of Amazon. And, using all of the personal and financial information they have gathered, they may be able to make your predicament even worse by stealing your identity.
Amazon phishing scams are common and take many forms. Be wary of any email that appears to be from Amazon that claims that you must click a link or open an attachment to deal with a supposed account, purchase, shipping, or security problem.
You can always check the status of your account and check any transactions by entering the Amazon address into your browser’s address bar and logging in. This is much safer than clicking a link in an email.
The Amazon website includes information about how to identify and report phishing scams.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
