Lately, my email spam filters have been working overtime to weed out the Amazon email scams.
A few of the Amazon email scams
• Your Amazon points are about to expire
• Love Amazon? Tell us about it and we’ll give you $100.00. ID – 233789639-A. Help us improve the Amazon Customer Experience!
• You’re amazon (e points) are expiring this weekend, 23794156
• Extra Amazon Prime Bonus Points are ready for you
• Attn: Your Amazon-$50 Reward-Points Will Soon-Expire! Claim-Here: #650372039019
The list goes on and if you’re the kind who just wants a quick answer, I’ll make this easy. They’re all fakes. Nothing but a scam to steal your identity or download malware to your computer.
Circular logic of the Amazon email scams
If you’re still reading, congrats. This is where things get interesting. Most of these emails want you to fill out a “survey” in exchange for your earned points. The logic of needing to complete a survey to be awarded points I’ve already earned escapes me. If the “points” are mine already, shouldn’t I be able to go to Amazon and spend them?
The problem with that logic is, there is no Amazon rewards program. Unless you want to count Amazon Prime, which is no more of a rewards program than a Costco membership.
Something for nothing
So, if the points aren’t real and Amazon has no rewards program, why does this scam work? And why doesn’t Amazon stop it? The answer to the first question boils down to old-fashioned gullibility. Since the days of the snake-oil salesmen in the 19th Century, people have fallen for these scams. I guess it’s human nature to want to believe we can get something for nothing. Sadly, too many of us forget a basic truth—there ain’t no free lunch.
The answer to the second question is nobody can completely stop these Amazon scam emails. Every time one scammer is shut down, another crops up. You can help report spam to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. However, if you haven’t been victimized, don’t expect much to happen.
Opting out
For those who like to keep their inboxes nice and tidy, the scammers have one final gotcha. Email marketing laws require each marketing email to contain an “opt out” link. An opt out link allows the recipient to remove his/her address from future emails. As a writer, I have to say the very fine print inserted before the opt out links was guaranteed to put any reader to sleep.
“This page will stop all messages from being sent you anymore. Thanks and have a great day”
“No more incoming messages will be delivered. Just tell us and within a few days this will update”
Congratulations to those who guessed those links only serve to confirm your email address. Opting out with these guys will increase spam because they now have a confirmed email address to sell.
I too have lost to the Amazon survey scam took the survey the said pick from one of 3 items 2 Knick knacks and a watch I picked the watch they said I have to pay $7.50 shipping I said ok that’s how they got my credit card a few days later I heard on the news about someone else getting scammed by this same thing so I went to my card and stopped payment on $7.50 and latter they socked me for $98.00 the money went to perfictthoeseyes.com
now I’m a 69 year old man why would I sign up for a beauty anything???
still having trouble with my card
I unfortunately have been receiving the cannibis and amazon emails for about 2 weeks now. I must have “unsubscribed” to one of them by accident. 🙁
Is there a way to stop them? I keep marking them as spam and even used a couple filters to delete, but it’s not working.
You could try looking in Gmail support to see if you can find anything about filtering out spam. However, if you don’t respond, eventually they’ll assume the email address is a bad one and drop you.
Credit card company called it section 75 or they could do a charge back which means the company can’t ask for the money back again…I was even told that should the product arrived I could either keep hold of it or try and return it but if it’s refused by the company and they return it I should keep hold of item with my proof of return signed for postage…I am usually really good at spotting fake emails but sometimes we all get taken in…best part about it you would of thought they would of asked for a signature on delivery as proof I received it but it was dumped in my outside post box..I could also then have denied any knowledge of receiving the product..
I got a message from the “Amazon Reward Team,” which I recognized as a scam. However, at the bottom of the message was a statement thanking me for registering with “NiceHash.” I googled NiceHash and saw that it is an entity that somehow uses unused computing power to generate bitcoin type files. Is NiceHash part of the attempted scam?
Good question, Larry. I’m not sure, but I doubt if NichHash is a willing part of this scam. They were hacked on December 7 and who knows what information they lost (in addition to the millions of dollars they say they lost). Since many of these scams are simply a copy and paste for the sender (they buy or download a script, then use it in their emails), it’s possible that was part of the original email. Tough to give a definitive answer, but one thing is for sure, be wary.
Thank you.
I don’t order frequently from Amazon, so a spoof email showed up and I was wondering if it was fake. It falls into the “something for nothing” category, didn’t have an originating email that was convincing (xyz@amazon.com), and had a link that was a come-on, but not an actual address.
I hadn’t even thought about the “opt out” angle, but it’s in my mind now. I’ve learned to keep separate emails for separate purposes: politics, personal, business, online purchasing. I would swear that online vendors are in on the phishing scams: they come on the tails of purchases.
I don’t respond to these e-mails but have a REALLY BIG concern about Amazon itself. Every time I purchase something through Amazon, I get a series of these survey/bonus e-mails for the next week or two. This tells me that either someone at Amazon is selling our information or someone has hacked Amazon and is collecting purchaser information. It is simple. I buy something on Amazon and almost immediately get spammed. How else would they know? Amazon has to be the source. Amazon better deal with this before being held liable for failing to protect consumer information.
I fell for this scam and even entered my phone number for some verification code. Now, I’m getting at least 50 spam calls a day and they are rude when I ask them to remove my number off of their list. One cursed me out and hung up, another got mad and said “f-u” and hung up. Even blocking the number doesn’t work. I don’t know how to reverse it now. Lesson learned. I truly thought it was just amazon. naive me
I just fell for The Amazon Survey scam, in which if I took a quick survey about Amazon Prime, I would receive a $50 product and only have to pay $4.99 shipping. These people took $98 out of my account for a 1-ounce bottle of face cream I received from a company I have never heard of!! My bank at first reversed the charge, but then a month later sent me a letter stating they called the company and I did receive a product, so I am liable for the charge!!!! It was a survey I took!!! How do I get
Hi Michelle, because you did receive a product, you are probably going to get nowhere with your bank. You might try contacting the Internet Crime Complaint Center and filing a complaint with them.
Hi Michelle and Terry, I was scammed with the same kind of lie a couple of days ago. I got an email asking me to answer an amazon survey in exchange of a gift for which I just will pay shipping. I chose my gift (a handbag), they sent it to me. I had it for about 1 month and then as soon as I got a transfer into my account (I had no money in that account since paying for the shipping) some weird debit for $99.99 appeared in my account, I call the number that appears in the debit and they say that I accepted a 14 days trial and that they’ll send me something and that’s why they charged me the $99.99. I told them that they never told me about a trial, and that I don’t want anything from them, and that I wanted my money back. And they just told me that they don’t return money and they don’t acccept returns. I’m pretty sure that they’re not going to send me anything for the $99.99 they stole from my account. I called the bank and they couldn’t do anything to help me after calling that company. They don’t even have a website. I’ll never accept anything that says that I’ll receive some good in exchange for just paying shipping anymore!
I’m sorry to hear that you got taken in. It’s a hard (and expensive) lesson learned, but hopefully it will never happen again. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I was scammed the same, after I paid postage I thought something wasn’t right luckily I rang my credit card company who offer and had the postage refunded and they suspended any future payments two days later they tried to take out £100 but credit card company charged it back to their bank..I have received the goods but didn’t agree to pay the additional £100 so I sent the item back through recorded/ signed for…my credit card company told me of the product arrived either send it back or keep it because it was a spam email and when I tried to ring for a return address all I got was a call on hold to America….I posted back to address on invoice so will wait and see…all I know is it pays sometimes to purchase via a credit card because their is more protection for consumers
I just placed an Amazon order. Moments afterwards I received an email saying take a survey and earn a $50 Amazon card. I backed out of the email knowing it was most likely a scam, then it somehow removed itself from my email as if it were never there. I checked the trash, spam, and every folder…it was just gone.
Did anything ever come of this? Just had the same thing happen to me, very suspicious! The email just disappeared but mine was in another language once I opened it.
Did a survey and paid 4.00 and received my free gift. Paid with a gift card.
I just found your article in a Google search because I received one of these scam emails tonight. The email address I received it from was Amazon.Rewards@medicalnewstoday.com and before clicking and actually going to a web page, I clicked the link and copied and pasted it to a memo to see what the link was. It’s a cgi bin page. In fact, every link in the email is. Because it contained the word “Google” it made me look at what email address they sent it to, and I realized they sent it to my Gmail about, which is not the one I use atty Amazon.
I’m not sure where they got my email address, but I’m blocking them from Gmail, reporting them as spam to Gmail, Amazon, and the BBB.
I got one on Nov 6th that is similar but a lil bit different…..
Dear Amazon Shopper,
Re: Your $200 Amazon-Store Card Shopping Bonus
We wanted to let you know that we noticed that you still did not claim your $200 Amazon-shopping bonus that was gifted to you as a thank you for participating in Amazon Prime Day Sale. Please be sure to claim this before Nov. 9
Hurry! This Ends on Nov. 9!
Please Follow This Link to Claim Your $200 Amazon-Shopping Bonus
The email address is a huge giveaway lol. Amazon-Store-Card (tiffanyroyster@qvpegchuwazawkhnc.co.tv)
Yep, looks like a legitimate Amazon email addy to me LOL.
Hello,
Thank you so much for the warning. I almost got screwed! Unfortunately, I did take the survey, as I am a regular Amazon shopper & Prime member and it looked totally legit. When I clicked on a couple of the “free $100 gift” options (to take a closer look at any items I found halfway interesting), another window opened up containing the description of the item and a form to fill out (name, address, etc.) I began filling it out, but did not click the “submit” button- I happened to remember a rule I’ve always lived by: “If it looks to good to be true, it probably is!” So I typed my inquiry into google and found your page. I just hope they’re not able to obtain any info regardless of whether you submitted it or not!
Again, thank you!
I take great joy in e mailing them back with false names and banks that dont exsist. Just never enable links or pics on your e mails to avoid malware, and have fun. Yes…..my credit card number is 6. This will always get a great reply, as most of these scammers are from 3rd world countries, and english is not well understood. My name is James T Kirk, i used the bank of the federation, my account number is 11…..and when do i get my free toaster? Id really like the blue one, as it matches my cat tittles. Do you like cats?
I am getting email from “Amazon” saying that they have double-charged me for a purchase and want to issue a refund, but their info on me is incorrect. Oh brother!
Hi Terry. I appreciate the heads up, especially since I am an Amazon user. There is a point on why people fall for the bonus points that you missed or may not be aware of. Amazon does have a bonus system that deals with their apps. You can be rewarded bonus coins for certain games and purchases. This system, (which I do like as I have made coins off it), unfortunately can lead people who know of it, to fall for the email scams. It may be helpful to remind people that the only rewards programs Amazon offers, besides Prime, are the app coins and rewards associated with their credit card, (which gives bonus points that can be used for purchases), both of which require purchases to accumulate coins or points. Amazon has recently added credits that Prime users can get for opting to accept longer shipping times, which only adds to the confusion of what scammers can use. I think as Amazon expands certain areas that use to benefit Prime users, but now have been changed to benefit profits, they may roll out other bonuses in effort to keep Prime customers. I know a number of people who paid for Prime in the past because it offered so many benefits in addition to shipping. Many of these people have watched their free reading change to a monthly fee to read, free movies/programming change to pay for channels to watch and kids apps change to monthly subscriptions. All this in addition to paying a Prime fee makes the whole Prime option less than desirable. Amazon needs to do something to keep those people and bonus rewards seems to be their direction. Adds a nice confusing layer to things that make people more vulnerable to scams involving their name.
Thanks for the reminder about these scams, Terry. These guys never give up. I their type spent a tenth of the time/energy doing something productive/positive, they would be well ahead of the game. I’ve never understood the mindset. I suppose honesty is its own reward. 🙂
–Michael
I’m too much of a chicken to play those types of games, Michael. But I can write about it with a clear conscience! 🙂