Amazon account potentially limited

Amazon account potentially limited

This is more or less what the latest phishing emails to hit our email filters say. The reason for the recipient’s account potentially being limited is due to a recent upgrade at Amazon. We don’t receive many Amazon phishing emails, so this phishing email is something of a rarity. However, the volume of this particular phishing email makes it the clear winner in our phish of the day.

We have pulled one sample from the MailShark nets and displayed it as Figure A. It is pretty straightforward. The Amazon brand is placed in the top left hand corner. The sender of the email shows up as “Amazon support”, whilst the subject line of the email reads “Your Account Amazon Will Be Limited, Update your Information Please”. Yes, it’s quite a mouthful. One link is contained in the email. The anchor text of the link is “UPDATE YOUR AMAZON ACCOUNT”. Fairly eye catching, and designed to grab your attention. The email greeting is not personalised, and again is in upper case. The sign off is “Amazon Online Shopping Team”.

The reason for the email is stated as being due to a recent upgrade to Amazon’s SSL servers. The customers are therefore advised to update their account information, via the supplied link. In fact the email does seem a little disjointed; the final paragraph of the email tells the recipient to click on the link below. However, there is no link.

In common with many large organisations, Amazon has a page specifically dedicated to educating users on phishing emails. This particular email is fairly realistic, but it is a fake. One of the signs is the grammar; it is fairly poor in places. Another sign is the link contained in the web address. Mousing over it shows that it does not lead back to Amazon. It leads to a copy of the Amazon website. Once again, this site is a phishing site designed to steal personal details from the customer.

Scott Reeves
MailShark
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