Amazon Customers Target of a Phishing Scam

Amazon, the online bookseller, has issued an alert to its customers informing them that a new spoofed or phishing e-mail is making rounds over the Internet, trying to defraud its online buyers.

Details reveal that starting with "Dear customer," the phishing e-mail informs the recipient that the bookseller has successfully cancelled his order. Moreover, for the sake of reference, he can see the order's summary from a given file attachment.

Following this text, particulars about the order appear which consist of an order number and a link for "order information". While clicking, this link leads the user onto a phishing site. Moreover, these spam e-mails also contain a web-link at the end, leading onto the real Amazon site so that the messages seem legitimate and authentic.

An Amazon Spokeswoman, while alarming users, stated that customers might intermittently get e-mails seeming as messages from Amazon, but they were in reality fraudulent or phishing e-mails, according to a statement published by thinq.co.uk on March 15, 2010.

The Spokeswoman further explained that the fake e-mails could redirect the recipients to fake site. That site could then prompt the user to feed his/her account details, like username and password of his e-mail account.

Owing to this spam outbreak, Amazon has urged its customers to contact its customer service in case they receive any suspicious looking e-mail.

Over and above, some recommendations have been advised to end-users. These are: first, to applying common sense, customers need to understand that no online retail seller will ever ask its subscriber to reveal sensitive information like PIN via e-mail. Therefore, users must delete these kinds of e-mails from their inboxes.

Secondly, users must report the retailer of any phishing e-mail they receive so that others can be prevented from becoming a victim of the scam. Thirdly, users must log into their Internet accounts by entering the URL address inside their browser. This means that no website should be accessed from an e-mail link for subsequent entry of personal information since this could result in undesirable outcomes. Finally, users must ensure that security software on their computers is up dated at regular intervals.

Related article: Amazon’s Customers Latest Target for Phishers

» SPAMfighter News - 3/22/2010