A Disturbing Email from Amazon

Jules

Jules

SF VIP
Tonight I got an email from “Amazon” that looked totally authentic, including my address. It was articulate; there were none of the ordinary grammatical errors.

It said I’d requested more information about Gaviscon and gave me a link. Of course I didn’t click it.

I went to my Amazon site to double check that I hadn’t been searching for something that had accidentally triggered this. Not a thing.

Wow.
 
@Jules, is there any chance you were watching a show on Amazon Prime? God forbid you try to pause during an ad on Prime, since sometimes during advertisements, a small Amazon window appears in the lower left corner of the screen that says "More information" or "Add to shopping cart." If you merely try to pause the ad while that window is shown, it will send you extra information via email or add the offered item to your Amazon shopping cart. 🤨
 
Bella said:
@Jules, is there any chance you were watching a show on Amazon Prime? God forbid you try to pause during an ad on Prime, since sometimes during advertisements, a small Amazon window appears in the lower left corner of the screen that says "More information" or "Add to shopping cart." If you merely try to pause the ad while that window is shown, it will send you extra information via email or add the offered item to your Amazon shopping cart. 🤨
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Good point. We rarely watch Prime and we have been for a couple of nights. Neither of us remember an ad for Gaviscon, but I can almost totally ignore all ads. I did start to pause at 8:30 and then saw there was only ten minutes left so finished the episode.

Good grief. I bet this is what happened. Thanks.
 
robin416 said:
OK, @Jules, experience has convinced me I made the right choice not to have Amazon Prime.
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Same for me. I had Prime for years before dumping it. That was before AI became so invasive and companies started using it for what they're calling targeted advertising. At least the "targeting" part is accurate, but I'll make my own purchase choices and not what some bucket o' bolts AI intruder tells me I want to buy.
 
The best thing I ever did was to give my email address a cryptic name rather than my actual name.

The next best thing I did was send everything to junk mail unless I approved the sender's email address previously.

So the first clue that an email is not legit, is that it appears in the Junk Mail folder.

The second clue is that it reads "Dear (cryptic name)". Then I know it was sent by a BOT.

If you think something is from Amazon, check the actual email address of the sender. (You may have to reveal it somehow using your mouse.)
 
Considering that I forwarded the email to Amazon when I reported it, they could have told me. Just a standard type of reply. Guess they didn’t want to put it in B&W that this is what they’re doing.
 
I’ve been watching Amazon Prime lately and have noticed the little square ad in the left corner when I pause the video. Ad says “click here to order or for more info”. It would be super easy to fumble around and click on that ad. So far I’ve avoided that.
i am considering stopping Amazon Prime and have already cut back on any ordering from Amazon. It is my last resort for ordering.
 
You can quickly check all your Amazon orders by clicking Returns and Orders, top left of the Amazon home page. Perhaps someone clicked a link for more information?

I get scams all the time telling me I ordered some expensive item or service. It is very easy to make such a scam look authentic. But in this case, the item is inexpensive so I don’t think that is what is going on. They cite expensive things to induce a bit of panic which might cause a person to click on their scam link or call their number.
 
I haven't had an email like that, but I have received texts stating there is an issue with my Amazon order, and I don't even have an account with them, and never will.
 
Long ago, I created a special email address specifically for my Amazon account.

Messages from all my email accounts, including this one, go to my desktop's Thunderbird mail client. I take note of which email account received it, a great first step for distinguishing authentic AMZ emails from scams.
 
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