Amazon scam emails: the order you didn't place, and how to check any "Amazon" message in a minute
An email says you ordered something expensive, your account is locked, or a refund is waiting. How to check it with Amazon itself in under a minute, the sender and link details that give fakes away, the requests Amazon names as red flags, and what to do if you already clicked.
The one-minute check
Before you read the email closely, check it with Amazon itself. Amazon's own advice gives you two quick ways:
- Message Center. Sign in to Amazon the way you normally do (the app, or amazon.com typed yourself, not a link in the email) and open Message Center. Amazon says every email it sends is there. If the email isn't in Message Center, Amazon didn't send it.
- Your Orders. If the email is about an order, look at Your Orders. Amazon says that if you got a message about an order you didn't place, it likely wasn't from Amazon.
That is usually the whole answer. The rest of this page is for when you want to know why.
The three stories these emails tell
Two of the red flags on Amazon's own list show up in most of these emails:
- An unexpected order. A notice about an order or a delivery you weren't expecting, often for something expensive, with a link or a number to call if it "wasn't you".
- False urgency. Your account will be locked, a payment failed, an order will be cancelled today.
Either way, the email wants you to act before you check: click a link, call a number, or reply with details.
How to read the email itself
Amazon lists what to check:
- The sender's address, not the name. Real Amazon emails come from an address that contains amazon.com. Look for misspellings, and for characters added or swapped in.
- The Amazon logo in your inbox. Amazon says common email providers show its logo next to the message when Amazon really is the sender.
- Typos and grammar mistakes.
- Where the links go. Amazon says its real websites have a dot before "amazon.com", like
something.amazon.com, and that a real link goes to an Amazon address such ashttps://www.amazon.com/.... A site calledamazon.com-orders.shopis not Amazon: read the address from the right, up to the first single slash, and the name that counts iscom-orders.shop. How to read any address this way is in is this link safe? - Attachments. Amazon says real emails may send links to secure Amazon pages *instead of* attachments.
If you want to know where a link goes without opening it on your own phone or computer, paste it into our checker. We open it in a browser that isn't yours and tell you where it really goes, how old the site is, and whether it asks for a login or a payment.
What Amazon calls red flags
On calls, texts and emails alike, Amazon names these as signs of an impersonation scam:
- being asked for personal information such as your address, payment details, login, or bank details
- being asked to pay outside Amazon, through another website or by wire transfer
- being asked to pay with gift cards, or to read out a gift card's number, claim code or PIN
- urgency, and orders you weren't expecting
Any one of these is enough to stop.
Ask Amazon directly
If you're still not sure, Amazon offers three ways to ask:
- ask Alexa for Shopping in the Amazon app or website, in your own words (Amazon's example: "Did you call me today?")
- forward the message to [email protected]
- use Amazon's Report a scam page. If you don't have an Amazon account, Amazon asks you to report it to [email protected].
If you already clicked, called or paid
- You typed your Amazon password on a page from the email: change your Amazon password straight away. The FTC's advice is to use a new, strong password, change it anywhere else you used the same one, and turn on two-step verification.
- You paid with a gift card: call the card's issuer on the number on the back and tell them a scammer got the card number and PIN.
- You paid or gave details with a credit or debit card: report it to the card issuer straight away, using the number on the back of the card or its own app, and ask for your money back.
- You let someone connect to your computer: the FTC's advice is to update your security software, run a scan, and delete anything it flags.
Then report it: to Amazon through Report a scam, and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC's full list of next steps, by how you paid, is at What To Do if You Were Scammed.
Sources: Amazon: How to identify fake emails · Amazon: Identifying a scam · FTC: What To Do if You Were Scammed
Check a link before you click it
Paste the link or scan the QR code. We open it for you and show the real destination, the redirects on the way, and whether anyone has reported the seller behind it.
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