Spam from someone claiming to be Amazon

[OtinG]

I got the attached text message this afternoon from someone claiming to be Amazon saying my account had been suspended. I immediately reported it to Amazon but haven’t heard back from them yet. It has the hallmarks of spam, phishing for account information no doubt. The wording is not proper American English, and is rather awkwardly written. There is a link to click (which I smudged out in the screenshot).

I called Amazon, got their stupid automated system, but it responded by sending me a link for reporting the text, so I filled out the form and submitted it. Hopefully they will contact me before too long. FYI, my account doesn’t appear to be suspended.

At any rate, just be careful if you get a text like this, or an email, or a phone call. Use precaution and give the contactor no information at all. Instead immediately report it to Amazon.

ETA-1: Just to be safe I changed my password for Amazon.

ETA-2: Amazon sent me an email last night confirming the alleged spam text I received was indeed spam and not sent from them. They suggested I set up 2-tier identification and change my password. I've been using 2-tier for a few years now and I had already changed my password, but their advice is welcome nonetheless, and good.

…….

[OtinG]

All is well, I correctly identified the spam text as an attempt to phish for information. This one was easy to detect due to the poorly worded message they sent which indicated that it was from someone in a different country.

I posted this as a warning to be careful. I have friends and family my age
(60s) who would have likely clicked on that link and exposed their account information because they are not tech savvy. So be careful.

If you get a suspicious text, email, phone message, ignore it. Go to the official website for the company from whom the message claimed to be sent, find their CS contact number, and call them directly to report the suspicious communication. Use 2-tier security if it is available. Change your password(s) often, and change them immediately if you get a spam message like this one. Better safe than sorry.

[Sirtel]

I've gotten many such emails over the years. Allegedly from Amazon, from PayPal, from Microsoft, from Adobe, from Apple and several other well-known corporations. I always ignore them. Sometimes I've reported them, but usually I can't be bothered. There are too many.

[DNSB]

I tend to agree with Sirtel. I've seen all too many of these messages sent via email, text, popup notifications, etc. Not really worth reporting since by the time you report the message, the spammers (spimmers?) have moved on.

I will admit to having gotten some amusement out of the sheer number of typos, weird word usage, etc. that are committed by the senders.

[OtinG]

I did not report it in order to catch he spammer. They likely want ever catch him or her. I reported it to verify it was spam and that my account was not breached. There is big difference between those two responses.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I did not report it in order to catch he spammer. They likely want ever catch him or her. I reported it to verify it was spam and that my account was not breached. There is big difference between those two responses.

I am not really worried about an account breach. I will check any related account and likely change the password but then I do that on a fairly regular basis anyways and I do love me some long complex passphrases. On the other hand, so many of those message do not reference any real account—I've had messages about my T-Mobile, Verizon, Bank of America, etc. accounts which are risible since I don't live in the USA and accounts for Canadian companies that I have never dealt with.

I have also received multiple messages informing me that that one of my devices has been hacked and the hacker has a collection of videos which for a minor payment he will discard. Oddly since my laptop has a camera with a sliding cover, the only time any images would be available would be during a meeting which are not likely to provide any videos worth blackmailing me over and I seldom use the cameras on my other devices.

Then there have been the one related to government sites. Has one of those maggots even tried logging into the CRA's site recently? Yes, you could guess my password though that is likely to be a very long trial since 3 bad attempts gets you locked out. Then you would need to crack the second factor of the authentication sequence. It would probably be easier to hack the entire website though they seem to be almost up to my level of paranoia when it comes to security.

So at this point in time, jejeune would be a good word to describe my feelings towards that spammers/spimmers.

[Sirtel]

I also have had spam messages wanting money for supposed secret recordings of my visiting adult sites. Which I don't do, so such recordings cannot exist. Needless to say, I ignored them and no recordings materialized.

I've never had any of my accounts breached after getting a spam message. The senders don't actually know anything; that's why they want you to give your password to them. If they had hacked your account and knew the password, they wouldn't need to ask you, would they?

[OtinG]

I haven’t had any accounts compromised via spam either. But I have had breaches occur to accounts outside my control and received legitimate notification from them, including the US Gov’t Office of Personnel Management, and of course T-Mobile at least twice. So double checking to verify spam is really spam is a good idea. Commonly occurring spam is not an issue, but unknown spam should be double checked, and of course passwords changed to be on the safe side. And of course if the spam is a known spam scheme or claiming to be from a company you have never had an account with, it safe to ignore those, and block them.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by OtinG

. . .

including the US Gov’t Office

. . .

Most of the spam I get purports to come from US Government departments and agencies, asking me where they should deposit the $150M they are holding on my account.

But when the FBI seized my Lavabit email account (along with everyone else's accounts) - nothing. AFAIK Ed Snowden is still holed up in Russia.

BR

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I haven’t had any accounts compromised via spam either. But I have had breaches occur to accounts outside my control and received legitimate notification from them, including the US Gov’t Office of Personnel Management, and of course T-Mobile at least twice. So double checking to verify spam is really spam is a good idea. Commonly occurring spam is not an issue, but unknown spam should be double checked, and of course passwords changed to be on the safe side. And of course if the spam is a known spam scheme or claiming to be from a company you have never had an account with, it safe to ignore those, and block them.

Spam and breaches are two different things. Real hackers and breachers don't send you spam messages. Spammers do and of course if one voluntarily gives them passwords and other data, then they can take your account over. But spammers don't know your data unless you give it to them.

[4691mls]

Recently I've had an increase in spam, the majority of it claiming my McAfee service (I've never used McAfee) is expiring (occasionally for variety they'll say Norton.).
There's so much of it that I'm starting to wonder if my email address was somehow compromised or sold.

Occasionally it'll be something else like "your iphone has been delivered" with obvious misspelling in the subject line

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Recently I've had an increase in spam, the majority of it claiming my McAfee service (I've never used McAfee) is expiring (occasionally for variety they'll say Norton.).
There's so much of it that I'm starting to wonder if my email address was somehow compromised or sold.

It doesn't have to be that nefarious. Your email address being in the address book of a trusted friend whose system was compromised is enough.

Everyone's email address is compromised to a certain extent (if you use said address).