A Which? member was signed up to an Amazon seller plan he didn’t ask for. But would you know what to do?
Which? member, John Hedger, contacted us for help after discovering he’d been tricked into signing up for an Amazon seller plan.
John said: ‘I recently received an email from Amazon thanking me for registering for a Pro Merchant Seller Plan. This I certainly hadn’t done – as I had never heard of such an account. I responded directly to the email explaining the situation and asked to cancel.
‘I have since received emails advising me of money that has been transferred to my current account. I have also received emails from alleged ‘customers’ cancelling their orders and requesting refunds. It would appear my email address has been hacked and that someone has set up an account in my name.
‘My loss to date is £30, deducted when the account was opened. I have contacted my bank to cancel the associated credit card, but I’m still receiving numerous emails from Amazon trying to charge me for this account.’
Our advice on email hacking
This is certainly an unfortunate situation and is likely to have originated from a phishing email. Luckily, we understand that Amazon has since refunded your losses and offered you a goodwill gesture.
We’ve seen many examples of genuine-looking emails that direct you to a false, but a convincing looking, website where you’re asked to provide personal details and account information. We’ve been doing our best to raise awareness to these scams by sharing information about them here on Which? Conversation and on our social media channels.
If you’ve been prompted to review or make any changes to your orders or your account, it’s best to navigate directly to Amazon.co.uk and click on ‘Your Account’ in the top right-hand corner of the page.
In general, avoid clicking on links in these emails and sharing your personal details. Usually there are ways you can find out if the email is genuine or not by visiting the company’s website or speaking to their customer services. If you receive one of these spoof Amazon emails then you can forward phishing emails directly to stop-spoofing@amazon.co.uk.
Have you been unwillingly signed up to online services? What did you do and how easy was it to rectify? Do you report phishing emails or do you just ignore them?
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