Did Your Amazon Account Get Hacked? Things To Do Immediately
Most shoppers love Amazon. Hard not to with the free 2-day shipping, cool Prime perks, and competitive pricing. But with Amazon’s popularity comes growing security concerns as hackers try to crack the huge database of shoppers and their linked credit cards. If for some unforeseeable reason your Amazon account gets hacked, here are the 6 things you need to do right away…
1. Immediately Change Your Amazon Password
If you think your Amazon account was hacked for ANY reason, the first thing you should do is immediately login to your account and change your password.
To make this happen just click on Accounts & Lists, followed by Your Account, then Login & Security.
Make your new password a string of random numbers and letters and not actual words.
Then write it down somewhere for safe keeping.
If you need help generating a strong password, I’m a big fan of StrongPasswordGenerator.com.
It would also be REALLY smart to change the password on the email account associated with your Amazon account.
In many cases this is how hackers gain access to your Amazon account if you’re signed up with Amazon’s 2-step verification system.
In other words, if they can get into your email account it becomes easy to also get into your Amazon account.
Important: DO NOT use the same password that you use on other popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
PRO TIP: SETUP AN AMAZON PASSKEY
An Amazon Passkey is VERY secure and let’s you access your Amazon account using your face, fingerprint, or the same PIN you use to unlock your device—no password required.
It’s highly recommend by companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google that you switch away from Passwords towards a Passkey for the added security.
To enable your Amazon Passkey:
- Go to Your Account and select Login & Security.
- Click Set Up next to Passkeys.
- Choose Set Up again.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
See Also: 6 Out-Of-The-Box Ways to Score Amazon Prime for Free
2. Check Your Account Information
Next, click around your Amazon account carefully and make sure nothing has been altered.
Check your linked credit cards (if any), billing address, shipping address, phone number, and email address.
If any information has been changed, be sure to note the change (with a screen capture) and then correct it.
At this point you should call Amazon’s security department at (888) 282-2406 and tell them that your account has been breached.
They’ll be able to provide further assistance and help you keep an eye on your account activity in the coming days.
PROTECT YOURSELF: STAY OFF PUBLIC WIFI
Don’t access your Amazon account over an unsecured network.
In other words, try not to shop online, or do any online banking, when sipping a latte at Starbucks if you’re using their free WiFi.
3. Check Purchase History (Especially Archived Orders)
Next, take a look at your Amazon order history and make sure you recognize all recent purchases.
Don’t forget to click on Archived Orders as often times hackers will “hide” fraudulent orders there.
You’ll find all of your archived orders in the “Ordering and Shopping Preferences” section of your Amazon account. See screenshot above.
PROTECT YOURSELF: NEVER CLICK ON PHISHY EMAILS
If you get a supposed email from Amazon about your account, but it just doesn’t look right, DO NOT click on any links within the email.
Also, check the email address of the sender. Often times these phishing emails will NOT be from an address ending with @amazon.com. Stay far away from those.
See Also: Amazon Return Policy: No More Confusion, Here’s the Deal
4. Enable Amazon 2-Step Verification
By turning on 2-Step Authentication your Amazon account is much harder to hack into.
Essentially it requires a security code to be entered whenever you attempt to access your account from a new computer, smartphone, or tablet.
To authenticate, Amazon will simply shoot you a text message with a security code attached that you manually enter.
Very easy to do and definitely helps keep hackers out of your account.
PRO TIP: CALL AMAZON ASAP IF YOU CAN’T LOGIN
You obviously WON’T be able to get into your Amazon account if someone hacks your account and changes your email address.
You’ll have to immediately call Amazon at (888) 280-4331 and they can remove the fraudulent email address and lock your account until the issue is resolved.
5. Consider Un-Linking Credit Cards
Having your credit card(s) linked to your account makes ordering much easier. Believe me, I know.
But it also creates an easy way for hackers to make unauthorized purchases on those cards.
A simple workaround is to un-link all payment methods from your Amazon account.
Yes, you’ll have to enter your card info every time you make a purchase, BUT you won’t have to worry about someone hacking into your account and making a bunch of purchases.
6. Check all Credit Card Accounts
At this point it’s also smart to check all of your credit cards that are linked to your Amazon account.
Make sure none of them have any unauthorized purchases on them.
Ask the Reader: Has your Amazon account ever been hacked? How did the hacker get into your account and what damage was done?
By Kyle James
I started Rather-Be-Shopping.com in 2000 and have become a consumer expert and advocate writing about out-of-the-box ways to save at stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco to name a few. I’ve been featured on FOX News, Good Morning America, and the NY Times talking about my savings tips. (Learn more)
A couple weeks ago, I noticed a $1500 charge on my checking account for Amazon. Someone hacked into my Amazon account.
They ordered a gaming laptop. They had it shipped to their address, but left my name on it. They archived the order. They then hacked into my email and put a filter that anything with Amazon in it would go straight to the Trash folder.
I changed my password for my Amazon and email accounts and reported it over the phone to Amazon and through the app. They sent me 2 emails saying no fraudulent activity. I immediately called them again and reported it.
This time I received an email from the person I spoke with letting me know that it was noted on my account. I then received an email from Amazon that there was fraudulent activity, and I would need to redo my password. Knowing all of this, Amazon still delivered it to the person. I am a paralegal, so I am looking to see if I have any recourse against Amazon. They refuse to give me a refund.
This has just happened to me as well almost 2000 worth of iPods Apple watches! 😱I found the phone number and address the items were sent to and who signed for them!
The person used a condo number that’s for sale and the number when called has a Google voice messing states say your name and Google voice will Message the person I M. now walked out of my music my books and things that I paid for.
Amazon is of no use or help so my bank put a stop on the card and I made a police report It’s being investigated who knows I don’t trust amazon anymore and I feel so sad about that I loved shopping there I am so pissed I could spit now
Sounds about right, I just had my account hacked and called them like their email says to and they told me there is nothing they can do. WHAT?? You can’t change my email? You can’t close the account? You can’t do anything??? Then called back again, and they told me I have to create a whole new account with a new email and submit a help ticket.
Its been hours since my account was hacked so the hacker could be doing whatever he wants. The most pathetic excuse for tech support I have EVER seen.
This also happened to me a week ago and received the sane info so I called my bank and went through nearly $2,000.00 worth of charges I didn’t make so my bank cancelled my card and I will never trust Amazon
ever again! If I want to buy something I will get a gift first never again put my bank card on their site!
My acct was hacked & someone ordered $800 in gift cards…I denied making purchases on the emails they sent me but Amazon let orders go through. My bank called & asked if those were purchased by me & I said no but they were charged to my checking account when they should have blocked them. My I notified both Amazon & bank. The bank has investigated & asked me to contact Amazon & Amazon reported my account was fine with no indication of it having been hacked. My checking account has been charged $310 plus the $800 in gift card purchases. Guess the bank will now deny responsibility.
Be careful people Amazon is not on your side; they’ll take advantage of you in a second.
It absolutely seems that way maybe n inside job? I’ve been wondering about that because it was right after I spoke with a customer service representative for a package I didn’t receive? Hum
I had a phone call from WB, IN. sure who they were.
told me somebody had tried to make a purchase using my account. Sent me a number using Amazon text and asked me to recite it to her, she then told me everything about my account, my name address and last four digits of my card number, that’s when I ended the call. She sent me a link via text, I haven’t touch it. But I have contacted Amazon and in formed them. Changed my email and turned on the 2 way security. The bank only want to know if a withdrawal is made, not sure what else to do
Anything else to do besides call their completely useless number?
I’m going to block my husbands debit card and report to the bank but his account was hacked- changed email and phone number so he can’t get in
Now prime was charged and a small purchase was made
After over 30 minutes of searching the day he discovered it was hacked (through Klarna- it had an off the wall phone number and email linked) we finally found the phone number and he tried talking to them- they were fully, completely useless but said they blocked it- obviously not since there are now multiple charges.
Any one that has Amazon Prime membership, BEWARE! Their site is unsecured and hackers are hacking accounts. February 27th My account was attacked to the sum of $1293.56. These items were payed through Amazon Pay service, which is bundled with Amazon Prime membership. Apparently the hacker popped my account $4.48 with a movie rental to see if that worked. Then they ordered two TV’s from Samsung Electronics direct at $644.54, totaling $1289.08. I called Samsung and they are useless to resolving these charges. I called Amazon and they are useless to resolving these charges. Amazon told me to dispute the charges with my bank on the card. When I went to my bank to dispute the charges the customer service representative informed that I was the third issue this week at that one branch here in Tampa. AMAZON IS not encrypted or secure! DO NOT USE! BEWARE!
What we do to protect.
We never leave a Credit car on the site.
When we want to purchase, we enter our credit card. Purchase.
Then set a timer for 5 min. When the timer goes off, we remove the cc from amazon.
Someone in Amazon is taking our CC #, buy something and it does not show on amazon website. It can only be internal.
On February 17 2025,someone using the name likely a fake one, Sara Maureen which was above my hotmail email account and I have a picture of it, hacked into my Amazon account and stole $400 from me on gaming tickets which I didn’t even know anything about them since I have never ever bought them before and I rarely ever spend more than $50 or $60 in a month because my rent has gone up so high in the last 2 years I can barely afford to live in the same apartment I’ve been living in for 35 years this August!
I asked Amazon to please stop these payments and to give me my money back, they didn’t refund it and wanted me to contact my bank to reject the money instead and I have given them tons of my business and $ for like 7 years already but they did cancel these orders because they couldn’t varify it was me.
At about 11.45 pm I called the 1800- number of my bank and spoke to a woman in the lost and stolen card department and I asked her to please stop any payments on this card and she said she did, but I have to call my bank and ask them to reject the payments, I made no payments at all on the February 17,2025 and I now am going to need a new debit card.
I spoke to another Amazon customer service agent who told me all of the hackers orders were cancled and I asked them to close my old 5 year old account and I’m using a different email account and I closed my 14 year old one. I also got 3 disturbing emails by guys named John with different last names and emails 2 made scary creepy false claims that they have sexually explicit videos of me with my web cam, I would *never* do anything like this and I don’t have any videos of any kind of me online and I don’t own a web cam and they bribed me to pay them at a PO box not to show my family and friends and put it out there online further! They said they are a hacker that installed a trogen virus malware in my computer,that they have been following me for a while and one of the emails by the other John actually said the password I often used!
I did use the have I been pwned site and I put my old email address account that I closed and it’s going to be closed on March 20th, and my former often used password and the password I often used and my email address that I used most, were on many sites with data breaches! Even my Google password manager notifications said this but I never really payed attention to it before I sadly got hacked. It’s unbelievable that some of the sites my information was on that had the data breaches was Rate MD’s, Wendy’s app which I stopped using before this horribe hacking,NPR National Public Radio and more, I had never even heard of most of the sites Have I Been Pwned showed my information was on from these data breaches!
I also called my local police department and spoke to an officer about this but nobody seems to really care or do anything about it including The FBI, Federal Trade Commission and Attorney General’s office and something really very much needs to be done since it’s very sadly happened to so many innocent people and it’s going to very sadly keep happening to even more!
Also many people here and elsewhere who were hacked on Amazon said that their hacker changed their email address to a Russion one so they obviously are likely from Russia, and it’s no coincidence that my hacker had changed all of the text in my hotmail email account to Russian!
I took a picture of the name the hacker was using above my email address on my Amazon log in page too and I really wish that I could show this and the scary creepy emails the hacker wrote me but The FBI and The Fedral Trade Commission don’t even have email addresses to send it to or anyone to speak with diectly just recordings with some other information.
There are also many Youtube news station stories about this with interviews with the Amazon hacking victims going back to 2016 including of a woman who kept getting her Amazon account hacked repeatedly even after she kept changing her password, and one from 2018 who also changed her password and still continued and news videos on Youtube from more recent years too.
I just spoke with an Amazon customer service agent who wasn’t nice at all and didn’t even say I’m very sorry this happened to you and they told me my account that was hacked by the hacker using some other fake name using my hotmail email account that I closed but Outlook won’t close it until March 20th, is not closed but on hold!
I found this out from them after I told them that the hacker’s fake name sara maureen is still appearing above my old hotmail email address on the account log in section right with my new account I had recently created, it’s not on my desk top or tablet though.
And I said I was told on the phone and in an email that my information was secure and that my old account had been closed.This customer service agent said I have to close this old account myself and this would mean that I would have to open the hotmail account again to receive Amazon’s code to close the old account, and my hotmail now which is now called Outlook account isn’t going to be closed until March 20th.
I want it closed right away but they only give you a 30 or 60 day option so if I open it up again it’s going to be another 30 days until they close it. So I just permanently closed my new Amazon account that I didn’t even use yet, it took over a week to get my new debit card and I was afraid to use Amazon again anyway after having my new card for a days.
There were some really important items that I needed from Amazon that you can only get from them and many things were inexpensive although many of their items I can’t afford and I’ll have to pay shipping costs elsewhere and spend somewhat more but I never want to give them my business again!
Inconmprehensibly and unbelievably several women I spoke to about my horrible Amazon account hacking experience weren’t even empathetic and didn’t say I’m very sorry this happened to you, one was at xfinity and a young woman at Giant super market customer service actually said she can’t say if the hacker did or didn’t have the right to do it!
There were a few others I spoke with at a few other places and Giant super market customer service too,one young woman I spoke to before them, was very nice and empathetic Lets see how they feel and their lack of empathy if it happens to them or someone close to them that they love!