I had nearly fallen for it myself! Eesh.
A new phishing scam is making the rounds this week. It comes from scammers posing as Amazon and sending out fake receipts for unordered items. The scam email looks just like one you’d receive from Amazon if you had ordered something. However, when you click on the link to see what was ordered, you’re taking to a phishing site.
The BBB writes…
BBB is warning online shoppers about a fraudulent e-mail that appears to be from Amazon.com. Scam artists are sending out the e-mails that state “thanks for your order.” The e-mail has an order number on it, a total price, and a link to click on to check out your order.
A BBB employee received the e-mail this morning. The employee has never shopped on Amazon, so she became suspicious and called the company. A customer relations manager told her that he had received 5 calls on it already, and that Amazon is investigating the fraudulent e-mail. The manager did not know what would happen if you clicked on the link. The link could be a virus or it could be a phishing attempt (to steal your personal information).
Amazon is asking anyone who receives a fraudulent e-mail like this to forward the e-mail to stop-spoofing@amazon.com.
Click here for the full article and learn how to recognize a phishing attempt.
Normally I don’t cover every warning on phishing scams, but this scam is pretty slick. So slick, in fact, that I’m embarrassed to say I nearly fell for it myself just a few days ago. I have an Amazon Prime account and almost always have an open order at Amazon. I opened a link in an email regarding an order from Amazon and without hesitation I started to type in my username and password. Thank God I checked the address bar before hitting enter.
Five seconds of carelessness could have cost me months of aggravation. This just shows that everyone is susceptible to scams these days and you need to double check everything you do online, especially the things that have become routine. One slip up could cost you thousands of dollars or even your identity.
Be careful out there!
Ready to make real and legitimate money online? Click here to discover the top recommendation I give to everyone who asks.
One Response
I hate these. They’re the worst. It’s so frustrating when they use a “legit” well known company to scam/phish people. It’s like the fake PayPal and Bank of America that I get all the time. Ugh!