Amazon ‘Fire TV Print HD 89.97’ Phishing Email

The email is not from Amazon and the claim that the listed item has been purchased via your account is untrue. The email is a phishing scam designed to steal your personal and financial information via a fraudulent account update process.

According to this email, which purports to be from online giant, Amazon, your Amazon ID was just used to purchase an item called ‘Fire TV Print HD’ at a cost of $89.97 (or £89.87 in some versions). The message warns that the item was purchased via a computer or device that had not previously been associated with your Amazon ID and adds that the purchase was ‘initiated from Mexico’. It advises that, if you did not make the listed purchase, you should click a link to update your information immediately.

However, the email is not from Amazon, and the claim that the listed item has been purchased via your account is false. The email is a phishing scam designed to trick you into revealing your personal and financial information to cybercriminals.

If you click on the link in the email, you will be taken to a fraudulent website designed to look like a genuine Amazon login page. Once on the fake page, you will be asked to login with your Amazon account email and password. After ‘logging in’, you will be taken to a second fake page that asks you to fill in and submit an ‘Account Update’ form. The form asks you to provide contact and ID information as well as your credit card details, ostensibly so that the supposed security breach can be dealt with and the fraudulent transaction reversed.

After you click the ‘Submit’ button on the bogus update form, you may receive a message claiming that the issue has been resolved. You may then be automatically redirected to the genuine Amazon website. Meanwhile, however, the criminals can collect all of the information your submitted and use it to hijack you Amazon account, use your credit card for fraudulent transactions and possibly try to steal your identity.

Because Amazon is Internet based, conducts much of its business via email, and has a high profile, criminals regularly target the company’s customers via phishing emails much like this one. The Amazon website includes information about how to identify and report phishing scams.

Note that the item supposedly purchased and other details may vary in different incarnations of these scam emails. If you receive one of these emails, do not click any links or open any attachments that it contains.