My heart sank. I opened up an email claiming to be from Amazon, saying that an order I hadn't placed was being shipped to me.

I have no need for 3 routers. I also don't have the $300 to spend on them. I freaked out seeing the "receipt." Then I checked the email address the notification had been sent from.

Amazon will only send alerts, messages, and notifications from Amazon.com. At least, that's what it says on their website when you start looking up how to tell if an email is actually from Amazon.

So when I saw that the email came from "amazonpurchases-net.com" I knew something was up.

Charlie Hardin
Charlie Hardin
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I immediately checked my bank account to see if any charges had been made. Nothing showed up.

Then it dawned on me, I don't have an Amazon account through my work e-mail. My Amazon account is through an email address that is pretty much only used for Amazon.

I read an article recently that covered emotional responses, and the amount of time we should take before acting. In fear of losing money I absolutely can't afford to lose, I almost clicked on a link that would have asked me to log in. After that, the bad actors would have my login info for my Amazon account, and access to my saved payment methods.

The article I read said we should give ourselves a "beat" to allow the emotions to speak, and then take our time making a decision. Remember the old "count to 10" when you were a kid?

Always double check where a suspicious email is coming from. Usually, that alone will tip you off to it being a fake. Also, don't be afraid to check with the company it is supposedly coming from. Not following any links from the email itself, I checked on Amazon's website for info on fake emails and I got my answers.

With everything going on in the world today, scammers are getting desperate.

 

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