Internet Scams and Phishing
We know that you try to protect yourself from fraud on the internet. The information that follows is designed to help you identify and avoid internet scams and phishing attempts.
DO NOT:
- Respond to an Internet or phone offer that you aren't sure is honest
- Make a payment to someone you don't know or whose identity you can't verify
When in doubt, ask the intended recipient for more information about the purpose and safety of the requested payment. Do not send the payment until you are comfortable with the transaction.
Be Wary of Internet scams
DO NOT:
- Send money—by cash, wire transfer, Western Union, PayPal, MoneyGram or other means, including by Amazon Pay—to a merchant who claims that Amazon or Amazon Pay will guarantee the transaction, refund your funds if you are not satisfied with the purchase, or hold your funds in escrow.
- Make a payment to claim lottery or prize winnings, or on a promise of receiving a large amount of money.
- Make a payment because you are "guaranteed" a credit card or loan.
- Respond to an Internet or phone offer that you aren't sure is honest.
- Make a payment to someone you don't know or whose identity you can't verify.
When in doubt, ask the intended recipient for more information about the purpose and safety of the requested payment. Do not send the payment until you are comfortable with the transaction.
Identifying Phishing or Spoofed e-mails
From time to time you may receive e-mails that look like they have been sent from Amazon Pay, but are actually falsified. These e-mails may direct you to a website that looks similar to the Amazon Pay website; you might even be asked to provide account information such as your e-mail address and password combination.
These false websites can steal your sensitive login or payment information which is then used to commit fraud. Some phishing messages contain potential viruses or malware that can detect passwords or sensitive data. We recommend that you install an anti-virus program and keep it updated at all times.
Here are some key points related to fraudulent e-mails:
- Know what Amazon Pay won't ask you to provide in an e-mail
- Your bank account number
- Your full or partial social security number or tax identification number
- Your date of birth
- Your credit card number, PIN, or credit card security code (including "updates" to any of the above)
- Be wary of attachments in suspicious e-mails
- Look for grammatical or typographical errors
- Check the return address
- Check the website address
- If an e-mail looks suspicious, go directly to the Amazon Pay website
- Protect your account information
Amazon Pay may at times need to ask you for important information, but you will always be directed to provide this information through the Amazon Pay website.
You should not provide personal information such as the following in an e-mail:
We recommend that you do not open any e-mail attachments from suspicious or unknown sources. E-mail attachments can contain viruses that can infect your computer when the attachment is opened or accessed. If you receive a suspicious e-mail purportedly sent from Amazon Pay which contains an attachment, we recommend that you delete the e-mail—do not open the attachment.
Be on the lookout for poor grammar or typographical errors. Some phishing e-mails are translated from other languages or are sent without being proofread, and as a result, contain bad grammar or typographical errors.
Is the e-mail from Amazon Pay? While phishers can send forged e-mail to make it look like it came from Amazon Pay, you can sometimes determine whether or not it's authentic by checking the return address. If the "from" line of the e-mail looks like "amazon-security@hotmail.com" or "amazon-fraud@msn.com", or contains the name of another Internet service provider, you can be sure it is a fraudulent e-mail.
Genuine Amazon Pay websites are always hosted on one of the following domains:
Sometimes the link included in spoofed e-mails looks like a genuine Amazon Pay address. You can check where it actually points to by hovering your mouse over the link; the actual website to which it points will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of your browser window or as a pop-up.
We never use a web address hosted on a domain other than the ones listed above. For instance, variant domains such as "http://security-paywithamazon.amazon.in/" or an IP address (string of numbers) followed by directories such as "http://123.456.789.123/amazonpay.in/" are not valid Amazon Pay websites.
Alternately, sometimes the spoofed e-mail is set up such that if you click anywhere on the text you are taken to the fraudulent website. Amazon will never send an e-mail that does this. If you accidentally click on such an e-mail and go to a spoofed website, do not enter any information; instead, just close that browser window.
When in doubt, do not click the link included in an e-mail. Go directly to Amazon Pay website. and log on to your Amazon Pay account to view recent purchases, or review your account information. If you cannot access your account, or if you see anything suspicious, let us know right away. You can contact us from the Amazon Pay website.
If you did click from a spoofed or suspicious e-mail and you entered your Amazon Pay account information, you should immediately update your Amazon password. You can do this by going directly to Amazon Pay and clicking Edit Account Settings after signing in to your Amazon Pay account. On the next page, click the Manage addresses link.
If you submitted your credit card number to the site linked to from the forged e-mail message, we advise that you take steps to protect your information. You might want to contact your credit card company, for example, to notify them of this matter. Finally, you should delete that credit card from your Amazon Pay account to prevent anyone from improperly regaining access to your account.
Reporting Phishing e-mails
If you have received an e-mail that you know is a forgery, or if you think you have been a victim of a phishing attack and you are concerned about your Amazon.in account, please let us know right away by reporting a phishing or spoofed e-mail.