Saturday, March 28, 2009

BEWARE of "Amazon" Scam

Dear Reader

If you have been getting the following kind of message in your email, do not respond. Notice they want your bank account information. Give them that and they will clean out your account. I have tried to warn Amazon about this, but it is hard to contact the company. They have no easy way to do it. I finally made a press inquiry. I am, after all, a reporter. Here is the message. Keep in mind it is a total and complete scam. It is not from Amazon.

Dear Amazon.com Associate,

We have recently made payments to Associates. However, we are unable to pay you because of one of the following reasons; you have not indicated your preferred method for receiving payment (eg; EFT, Check or Gift Certificate) , you have indicated EFT but a previous disbursement into your bank account failed, or you have a US residence but you have not provided a tax identification number.
Please go immediately to Associates Central to update your information so that we can process your payment as soon as possible:
* To change your payee information, you should go to Associates Central >> Account Settings >> Change your contact information (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/your-account/payee-info.html).

* To change your bank account information, you should go to Associates Central >> Account Settings >> Change your payment method (under Pay me by direct deposit) (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/your-account/payment-info.html).

Once you have made the changes, we will process your payment within 2 to 3 business days. You will know we have processed your payment again when the payment error message disappears from the top of Associates Central homepage.

It is imperative you update your account information today. We will hold this payment and any future payments until you make the necessary changes.

We appreciate your feedback. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us anytime at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/contact. Thanks again for participating in the Amazon.com Associates Program, and have a great next month.

Sincerely,

The Amazon.com Associates Program


You night think that Amazon would jump right on this to try to shut it down. We'll see what their response is to my inquiry.

Sincerely,


NEWSGUY

4 comments:

Annette said...

I also got an email from someone yesterday regarding a comment I had made on a blog. That was weird too. Or at least I thought it was. I just deleted it.

NEWSGUY said...

How do you suppose they got your email address? Weird. Yes.

Scotty said...

Please share any such information about scams at
www.allscamsforum.com
For everyone to benefit from.

Kathy Seifert said...

Yea it looks like I got scammed too. Ever hear of an outfit called Online Hosting Network? Well somehow they have access to the Amazon associate site and hooks people up through the website we buy from ohn but any monies made goes through ohn in my name I guess. I left a message and got a call today from ohn tellig me to send an email to cs@bstcenter.com so I looked up bstcenter and came up with a Japanese outfit??? So am guessing they share our info??? Not sure about anything accept that ohn has all my personal info and the Amazon associate site too includeing bank info and I have no access to any money made from the site. I am unable to get any answers out of Amazon since I don't have the email ohn used to set up the account with Amazon in my name. Am wondering if any payments have been made in my name to Online hosting Network. It's starting to sound like an I.D. theft ring out of AZ wher the supposed sale from Online Hosting Network came from.