Fake Amazon Emails and Texts: How to Tell

Scammers pretend to be Amazon by email, text, phone and social media — about orders you didn’t place, problems with your account, refunds, recalls, even job offers. Amazon gives customers two simple ways to check, and is clear about what it will never ask for.

Quick check: paste the sender’s address into Is this Amazon email real?

Two checks Amazon gives you

1. Message Center. Genuine messages from Amazon also appear in Message Center in your Amazon account. Amazon says that if an email doesn’t appear there, Amazon didn’t send it. Got an email about an order you didn’t place? Check Your Orders.
2. The smile logo. Amazon says common email providers show the Amazon smile logo next to emails that really come from Amazon.

Open the Amazon app or type the address yourself — don’t use links or phone numbers from the message. Amazon’s own tip: trust Amazon’s app and website.

Where real Amazon emails come from

Amazon’s help page says approved Amazon emails contain “amazon.com” and are sent from an amazon.com email address. Look-alikes such as arnazon.com (an “r” and “n” standing in for “m”), amazon-billing.net, or Amazon’s name on a free Gmail address are not Amazon — the Amazon sender check flags them.

What Amazon says it will never do

• Ask you to buy a gift card — “no legitimate sale or transaction will require you to pay with gift cards”.
• Ask for payment over the phone or by email, or ask you to pay or transfer money on another website.
• Ask you to download software or give remote access to your device to reach customer service.
• Ask for payment for customer service.

The kinds of Amazon scams to expect

Amazon describes these:

• Account access scams — someone posing as Amazon says there’s a problem with your account and asks you to install software or share a one-time password.
• Fake emails, texts and calls about purchases, account issues, job opportunities or product recalls.
• Fake job offers using Amazon’s name.
• Phishing websites that copy Amazon’s — Amazon says it took down more than 70,000 in 2025.
• Gift card and payment scams that pressure you to pay by gift card, phone, bank transfer or another website.

Amazon also warns to be wary of false urgency — scammers try to rush you before you check.

If you clicked, signed in or paid

• Entered your Amazon password: change it from the Amazon app or website, on any other account using the same password, and turn on two-factor authentication. Full steps.
• Bought gift cards for a scammer: the FTC says to contact the gift card company immediately, tell them a scammer tricked you into giving them the card number and PIN, and ask for your money back. Amazon has a gift card scams page with more help.
• Let someone control your computer: update your security software, run a scan, then change your passwords.

Report it

Amazon customers: use Amazon’s self-service Report a Scam tool. Not an Amazon customer: email reportascam@amazon.com. More places to report: how to report phishing.

More help

• Is this Amazon email real? — check any sender against what Amazon publishes, with look-alike examples.
• How to spot phishing emails — the warning signs and tricks, for any company.
• How to check if an email is real — the headers and DMARC, app by app.
• Clicked a phishing link or gave your password? — what to do, step by step.
• How to report phishing emails — every place worth telling.