Amazon warnings about SPAM

These buggers have been persistent. I am getting these emails 3-5 times per day!

Like so many SPAM emails now, these emails look quite legitimate at face value.

Here are some quick tips . . .

This one looks just a bit more legitimate than others because the links in it actually link to the Amazon website.

The trap lies in the .zip file that is attached.

It is generally a good idea not to open attachments in emails from people that you do not know personally.

But in particular, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER open a .zip file or a .exe file.

You do not know what files might be contained and opened in a .zip file.

And a .exe file is just plain bad news because it is an executing program that could do anything on your computer, including:

instal viruses and trojans
wipe your hard drive
secretly access and forward your passwords
monitor and send your keystrokes
export and forward all of your contact’s email addresses
even forward files or emails

None of these things are good.

And once you open this can of worms, there is a lot of work and money in paying someone to undo it for you . . . if that is even possible.

Check with the Source

If you are unsure about an email, you can ask us to take a look at it for you.

Or better still, go to the source.

Work out where the email purports to be coming from . . . e.g. Amazon in this case.

Open a web browser and manually type in the address of the website, e.g. www.amazon.com

Look for a contact form, or a contact email and forward the email to them and ask

That’s what I did with this Amazon email, and

Here is what Amazon says

Hi Philip,

Thanks for highlighting this. This is definitely a Spam email. We don’t send zip files, we don’t have Amazon Local in Australia and the communication below does not conform to any of brand ID guidelines that we use in official communications with customers.

Please see the following information from Amazon which explains what can be done here:

About Identifying Whether an E-mail is from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=15835501

Report a Phishing or Spoofed E-mail
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201127830

I have already sent the email below to [email protected] which is mentioned in the second link above.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. Have a great weekend.

Kind Regards