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Spam email pretending to be from Amazon

21st February 2014 03:00 by lisa

I've just had an email apparently from Amazon telling me that my account has been suspended.

The email reads:

Amazon Customer, [my email address]

Your Amazon account has been temporarly suspended for security reasons.

After our Security Department made a close checking of your account we discovered that on your account were present unusual and suspicious activities.

If you want to continue using our services, please reactivate your account by Sign In and complete our Verification Process.

To reactivate your account now, please click on the link below and Sign In for Verification of your Identity:

Click Here [link has been removed for security]

In order to reactivate your Amazon Account our Security Department need to check your Ip Address Location and confirm your Identity. This is requested only for verification purposes.

Sincerely,
Amazon Security Department

By hovering over the link I could see in the bottom left hand corner of my browser (Chrome) that the link didn't go to Amazon - it went to a website with a guy's name as the domain name. I haven't clicked on it to see exactly where it goes.

Any time you receive an email with a link in it asking you to take action, carefully consider where the link is taking you. Also, consider if this "feels" realistic - the email (shown below) doesn't show any Amazon branding, doesn't refer to my name as Amazon emails often do, it has a spelling mistake in it and it doesn't read like it's written in perfect English.