COLUMBUS (WATE) – Shoppers should check their Christmas list twice, but they should also check their emails.
Scammers are sending customers emails that say their recent order cannot be shipped. The email claims there was a processing order and asks to confirm personal information.
A link inside the emails takes customers to a web page that looks real and asks them to confirm their name, address and credit card information associated with the account. When you click save, the site even takes customers back to Amazon’s real website.
Amazon has posted advice for customers who find suspicious emails in their inbox. Emails that did not really come from Amazon often include these suspicious elements:
- An order confirmation for an item you didn’t purchase or an attachment to an order confirmation.
- Requests for your Amazon username and/or password, or other personal information.
- Requests to update your payment information.
- Links to websites that look like Amazon.
- Attachments or prompts to install software on your computer.
- Typos or grammatical errors
- If the “from” line of the email is something other than @amazon.com, it’s a fake.
Scammers are also sending fake emails purportedly from other delivery services like DHL or UPS, saying there were problems with your delivery and to click a link to find out more information.
“Well you never know what can happen, that’s the problem. They could get your personal information, a worm or virus could be downloaded onto your computer. It’s best not to do that, if your not sure of the source, where it came from,” said Tony Binkley with the Better Business Bureau.
He says Christmas is the season for these scammers.
“Well that’s the time that everyone is vulnerable. There are online orders, people have packages that are showing up. There is more activity at this time of the year and the scammers know that,” said Binkley.