Amazon customers have now been informed they could risk losing up to £750 if they fall for this email scam.
‘service@amazon.co.uk’ is the email address that fronts this scam and it is very convincing! There have been several reports about this scam so far, however it is unclear how many people have received the fake email. The email claims that shoppers have ordered particular products which are fairly expensive, including things like iPhones, luxury watches and Bose stereos. The way that this scam extorts your money is by putting in a ‘help me’ link for if you didn’t make these purchases and you can then get a full refund.
The way that this scam extorts your money is by offering a full refund for these items via a ‘help me’ link. The idea being the recipient will know they have not purchased the items and quickly request the refund before being out of pocket.
So here are some tips on how to know if your email is real or fake and how to ensure that you aren’t scammed.
Typos
If you receive an official email from a well known name, there definitely will be no typos or grammatical mistakes. Another thing to look out for is the American spellings of words. For example ‘color’ instead of ‘colour’.
Attachments
Be careful of any attachments within the email. You should not click on these attachments if they are not from a trusted sender.
Links
If you see any suspicious links in your email, do not click on them. Taking Amazon as our prime example, Amazon will never put ‘Amazon.co.uk’. They will always put a dot before – ‘http://”something”.amazon.co.uk’. They also will not include any numbers in the email address. Such as ‘http://123.5335.345/amazon.co.uk’. If they have hyperlinked some text, you can hover over it and see if the address seems dodgy, if so don’t click on it. Or type the address into a separate window.
Unknown Sender
Although we are talking about scammers acting as Amazon, you should also look out for emails from companies who you have never signed up to or recognise. Also, if you receive an email from an address like ‘sender@secure.com’, this is not safe and certainly not secure.
Immediate action
If an e-mail requires ‘immediate reaction’, then call the proposed company directly. The customer service department will look up your account to see if anything needs to be done.
Personal Information
If you are requested to enter any personal details, you should be wary as this could be a scam. If these details are for a particular website, you should visit that website and enter your details on there.
So these are all different ways that you can insure that you keep yourself safe from scam emails. If you want more information or you have received an email that you’re unsure about and want somebody to take a second look, contact us today on 0800 304 744 or via our email at enquiries@coretek.co.uk!