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Scots have been tipped off about an Amazon email scam designed to steal information from unsuspecting victims.
The scam sees Amazon customers themselves receiving an email supposedly from the tech giant.
It tells the user that their account has been “locked” and that they need to complete an identity verification process in order to get it back in full working order.
Opening the link then takes the person to a website that looks a lot like the real Amazon website.
Next, users are taken through the identity verification process, which asks them to enter their credit card information, email address, and a number of other financial and personal details.
Action Fraud has raised concerns about the emergence of the scam, after receiving more than 2,000 reports from potential victims last week.
The anti-fraud unit has urged Scots to be vigilant against the scam.
An alert from the organization reads: “Action Fraud received over 2,000 reports in one week of fake emails claiming to be from Amazon.
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“The emails claim that the recipient’s Amazon account has been ‘locked’ and that they must complete an ‘identity verification’ process to unlock it.
“The links in the emails lead to genuine-looking phishing websites designed to steal Amazon login credentials, as well as personal and financial information.”
They later add: “Your bank, or any other official organization, will not ask you to share personal information via email or SMS. If you need to verify that this is a genuine message, contact him directly.
“Spotted a suspicious email? Forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS).
Amazon has also released advice on how customers can avoid falling victim to scams such as these.
The company tells customers that they will never ask for personal information to be provided over email, and they will never ask to update payment information that is unrelated to a past Amazon order or subscription. Amazon.
Scots were also advised to go to the My Orders section of the real Amazon website – if they weren’t asked to update their payment method, the message is not from Amazon.
Users should also verify the name and address of the person sending the email. Emails from Amazon will always come from an address that ends in @amazon.co.uk
People should also keep an eye out for spelling and grammatical errors, which are telltale signs of a scam email.
