A friend of mine received the following email - the email address it came from is legitimate, the numbers are correct and he verified with Amazon that they did indeed send it:
Dear <name>,
I see that you attempted to purchase different books while in a different country than United States listed on your Amazon account. Certain Kindle titles are not available everywhere. We are reaching out to you for information to ensure the best possible service for your account.
If you have moved to a different country, you can easily update your country for your Amazon account at www.Amazon.com/manageyourkindle.
If this is not the case, and you’re actually residing in United States, please fax us any of the following at 001-206-266-1838 when faxing from outside the US, or 206-266-1838 from within the US:
– Passport
– Military ID
– Permanent Resident Card
– Driver’s License
– Other state photo identity card
Thank you for your assistance.
Best regards,
Account Specialist
Amazon.com
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company
Now, he's an American using Kindle for PC on a laptop. He's in different countries about once a month, though, and he was downloading
free ebooks from Amazon (mostly classics), with an eye to deciding if he wanted to get a Kindle. He had a most unpleasant discussion with Amazon support where they made it plain he could either do it "promptly" or they'd close his entire account (and remove his ebook access), which he uses for more than just ebooks - and if he continued to buy outside America they couldn't guarantee they'd not take action in the future.
If you're not actually American, made that setting and have ever accessed it from a non-American proxy? Well, don't be surprised if you get one of these emails soon.
(Anyone still want to argue that they're only doing the minimum?)
My friend's now decided on a PRS-900, incidentally. And two layers of supervisors up, they agreed to let him just de-register the Kindle for PC without consequences to his account.