Did Your Amazon Account Get Hacked? Things To Do Immediately

Updated March 20, 2024 by Kyle James
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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…

Amazon Account Get Hacked? Things To Do Immediately

1. Immediately Change Your Amazon Password

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.

See Also: 6 Out-Of-The-Box Ways to Score Amazon Prime for Free or Cheap

2. Check Your Account Information

Account Info

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.

3. Check Purchase History (Especially Archived Orders)

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.

See Also: Amazon Return Policy: No More Confusion, Here’s EXACTLY How It Works

4. Enable Amazon 2-Step Verification

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.

5. Consider Un-Linking Credit Cards

Unlink 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.

Bonus: 3 Ways to Protect Yourself From Future Attacks

1. 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.

2. Don’t Access your Amazon Account Over Unsecured Network

In other words, try not to shop online when sipping a latte at Starbucks if you’re using their free WiFi.

3. Get Into Your Account if Hacker Changes Email Address

Well, in short, you CAN’T get into your Amazon account if this happens.

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.

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

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Robin

My AMAZON account was just hacked this week. First they changed my email address. Next they made a complaint about a recent candle purchase I made. AMAZON issued my account a gift card for the amount of the candles. The hacker took the gift card and purchased men’s underwear with it! The hacker added their mailing address to my account and had the items shipped to California. My hacker used an Asian name. I contacted AMAZON and spoke to a supervisor who froze my account and claims he removed all my saved credit card information. I am livid. Also, the day before I ordered my candles, I ordered two books and I haven’t received them. I’ve never been hacked before and I don’t think I’ll be shopping with AMAZON anymore.

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Shane

My Amazon account was hacked on Saturday night / Sunday morning.

Somehow, the hacker has got into my account, they then had a conversation with an Amazon Customer Support representative and claimed that orders from over 5 months ago never arrived. Amazon then refunded these orders as nearly £300 worth of gift cards.

I noticed this in my email and immediately secured my account by changing password and also enabling 2 factor authentication. I then contacted Amazon who said they would pass the information to their fraud department would be in touch within 48 hours.

6 hours later, I receive another email from Amazon to confirm an order for £75 worth of PSN network card digital downloads. I phoned Amazon and they removed all my credit cards etc that were saved, once again saying they would investigate and get back to me within 24 hours.

I’ve changed password again, and made sure 2FA is working.

Current situation is that I am waiting for Amazon to get in touch, I have over £200 in fraudulent gift cards attached to my Amazon account and I daren’t use it. I have no idea how the attacker got in to my account as it was a long, unique password not used elsewhere. Anti-virus scans on my laptop, phone and computers have come back negative and I don’t see any other suspicious activity on them – although I am convinced that one of them must have been compromised. Other accounts such as eBay have emailed me to say they noticed suspicious attempts to log in to my accounts. Everything I can lock down is locked down to the best of my ability, but I don’t know the source of the breach so I’m at a loss at the moment.

The attempts to access my accounts seems to have stopped for now.

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Amy Eckerle

Yesterday Someone purchase a fathers day gift card using my amazon account and used my credit card for payment.
The next day my daughter goes to work and in her history it shows a Amazon purchase a fathers day gift card. She wasn’t at work yesterday.
Does this mean someone was physically at her computer? Or could someone have hacked her computer?
We plan to have the office cameras reviewed.

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Maureen Lokkesmoe

they have my computer and have tracked my phone so they hacked my emails too.
I’m a Prime member. I need to change info. through customer service. please send a number to call at my daughter in laws email. I’m including it below I’m living with them
now.

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Christina

I was just hacked this week. I spoke to Amazon on Tuesday and they assured me that they were temporarily disabling my account and taking care of the fraudulent purchases. (That was the 2nd rep – the first one hung up on me when I said that I didn’t know the order number.) I have not heard a word from them about refunds for the $900 worth of purchases that were made. I looked at my bank account today and saw that ANOTHER $300 fraudulent purchase had been made yesterday- when my account was supposed to have been locked!! I called again was assure that my account is now locked ( for real this time) and that they would take care of it, but they have not even canceled the most recent order which has not shipped yet. I tried to change my password but my old password no longer works. I don’t know if this is because Amazon changed it or if the hackers changed it. My bank account is now $0 and I have not heard a thing from amazon regarding refunds! I have no money to feed my family for the next 10 days and Amazon is just taking their sweet time looking into this (if they are even looking at all). So disgusted with Amazon right now!

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Denise

We had our amazon account hacked 3 weeks ago. The person decides to purchase a piece of computer hard ware for just under £300 . They changed the settings from co.uk to com and got this sent to my address why!!. We have been trying to return this item and get our money back but all I keep being told is they are referring it it there investigating team. Nothing then been told it’s the banks responsible to refund the money. They say amazon should. Even time you phone it’s the same rubbish nobody tells the same story. We just want our money back and for amazon to let us return the computer part. There customer service is crap 💩

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John

Well, I see that I have lots of company. I’ve had two hacks in this month of July. I have always used 2 Factor Authentication with Amazon. The fraudulent orders are always for game gift cards in which they can download the credits. After the hack in mid-July, I took my credit card off the account. The latest attack yesterday was unique. The hacker added someone else’s credit card to my account and place six orders for gift cards.
I still maintain with Amazon that THIS IS AN INSIDE JOB at Amazon. There is no way all these accounts are compromised because of the users. I encourage everyone to complain publicly to get Amazon to find the culprits.

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Travis Ryno

Same thing happened go me. Someone straight logged into my account, put some new card in, ordered a bunch of stuff to an address in Tuscon, then apparently disputed the charge with the credit card issuer….

what a weird bunch of %$&#

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Thomas Barrus

my account is hacked right now. gotta call in the morning. UGH WHY IS SOMEONE WORKING AT CULVERS AND HACKING AMAZON ACCOUNTS?

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Ella rademacher

I was hacked on amazon today,someone charged a large tv 72 inch plus a cabinet to go with it,I contacted amazon right away soon as I found out

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Mary Mladovich

My Amazon account was compromised. Right away I tried to change my password, but after 3 attempts to get an email proving it was me, and no email came, I called Customer Service. I spent 20 morning minutes before work and the person kept asking me for my 2 security phrases. I had not idea what she was talking about. Someone had placed the security phrases on my account. She said someone from research would call me in 24 hours. No one called.

Then I called again, and went through the same process, only this time I was told I would get an email showing me how to fix my account. No email came. I called back and was told someone would call in 48 hours. No one called.

I called yesterday morning and the person on the other end was very kind and compassionate. I gave her my work phone number and she said I would hear from someone right way. No one called.

The last person I talked to said my credit card and my Amazon account would be cancelled immediately so no one could use I again. It is still active.

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Anonymous

To everything who got their accounts hacked. make sure your computer is secure first of all (ensure you don’t have any shady stuff on it which for those who ain’t sure I suggest clean installing your operating system) and make sure your email is secure and other websites by using a unique password on each website you use as this way if one is compromised, other sites you use can’t be easily compromised. I suggest using Gmail paired with a Yubikey (the most secure 2fa(two-factor authentication) available) as this way even if someone gets a hold of your username/password, they still can’t get into your Gmail account as if your email address gets hacked it can be used to reset passwords etc for other sites you use which is why it’s really important to make sure your email is secured. I would use Gmail and not places like Yahoo which can’t be trusted as you can look up the ‘Yahoo hacks’ online. even if one prefers not to use the YubiKey method, since it costs about $30-40(since you need to buy two keys to be safe in case you lose one you won’t be locked out of your account)), you need to use a secure password for your Gmail account which means get a password manager and have it generate random/unique password for all sites you use as this way all you have to do is remember the master password to the password manager and then you got access to each site’s username/password info you enter into it. note: if you use a password manager make sure you backup the password database file (to say a USB stick and some other things) in case your computer goes down you will still have backup copies of the password managers password database file as you don’t want to lose that otherwise it will be a major chore to fix.

for those who have two computers for example, say one of them is a bit older, I suggest installing Linux (which is free) on it and using it strictly for online banking or Amazon etc as this way even if your Windows computer is compromised that one will remain secure.

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Marti D

Join the discussion…
Sadly I have been hacked 4 times in the last 5 months. All for $100 gift card and 1 item. I changed my email address, have extremely strong passwords on both email and Amazon al done again in December 2019. The first week of January, hacked again on gmail account, which was new account, called Amazon, they did not show that I had switched my email account, luckily I had an order# to use, they were able to pull up my account. After 30 minutes of verifying who I was, account was changed back to the gmail address.
Here is the problem, I have 2 step verification, within 1 week after this incident, I longed into Amazon and guess what, 2 item in my cart for a $100 gift card and some cables, of course they could not purchase them because I had removed all payment info from the account.
This has to be someone within the Amazon employment.
Also my kids (adults) were using my account ordering with their phones with Amazon App and were never asked for a OPT code on any purchase. We tracked that for 5 purchases, no code request and when I checked the password login for Amazon stored on their phones it was at least a year old.
Amazon should be held accountable as all other large retail institutions. I am sending all my experiences to the Better Business Bureau in hopes of something happening.

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Not Telling you

Even thats not secure. They locked me.out of all administration tasks. Added about 15 user titles. Now I am in the process of having it investigated by the FBI.

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Frustrated Amazon

My account was fraudulently accessed 8 months ago and I still cannot access it because they have locked it due to suspicious activity. I actually took all the steps above afterward, because I could still access my account via the Amazon app, but to this day I cannot sign into my account any other way. It is so incredibly frustrating when I call in over 50 times to get it unlocked, they tell me they will contact me back in 1-2 days and it never happens.

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Angry!!

I used to love amazon. They are losing a very good customer. My account has been hacked twice this month within a week of fixing it. when I called today they sent to some guy saying my ip was hacked and that’s how theyre getting in. supposedly I have to pay hundreds of dollars to fix it?! like really?? They are the ONLY place ive been hacked.

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michael

what number did you call? All I get is automated CS and I cannot get into my account because someone changed the email associated with my name and changed the password.

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So Frustrated!

Same here! I reported a fraudulent charge for an Amazon purchase that i discovered on my cc bill and the cc company took care of it a month ago. Two and a half weeks ago my Amazon account was put on hold because they want to be paid the $1,000.00 for a laptop which was ordered from my account and sent to an address which I don’t know. the hacker also managed to divert any emails from Amazon to my deleted folder so I wouldn’t see them. I’ve called many times and keep being told they can’t unlock the account until the money is paid. My cc company won’t pay because they know it’s fraud. Amazon says it isn’t fraud because the order was made from my account using my credit card. And I can’t cancel the account or open a new one! It’s so frustrating. I have been an active Amazon Prime member for years and have given them tons of business! They won’t investigate anything event though they have the address where the laptop was delivered and I have proof my emails were diverted.

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Not Telling you

Its the Amazon affiliates doing it

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Roy

My Amazon password was changed also my phone number they had on file. So, nothing works.

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Tamra Cordasco

Yup my account was hacked and they ordered things using my credit card!! Then they deleted my account somehow and the username I have used for years was not recognized!!! When I called amazon with the supposed order number they had sent to my email they couldn’t even pull it up!!! WOW damn hackers anger me but hopefully my bank will fix these charges for me!! No more amazon for me….sad!!!

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rocdok

same story for me- locked out x 4 months mulitiple calls to the useless agents who ‘don’t have a phone number for the fraud section’ and supposedly send an email or fax to them and yes, no phone call occurs the next day. They ask for bank statements with everything whited out except name and last 4 digits of account. Then they email back saying that the information required was not provided. Then it all ends. I called prob 20 times in a row. Started new accounts with entirely different emails and got my mastercard and visa both replaced with new numbers…but they seem to recognize my name and address and within seconds of having my prime reset up ( after refund) the account gets closed again. Went through 4 different accounts. Here’s the funny part. i didn’t realize my Audible account was linked so had my books and credits transferred twice but much more intelligent agents at audible- but eventually that all failed. Then out of the blue, despite my amazon account being closed, my audible started working on an old email – that email still doesn’t work on my amazon prime but I can still buy books…..i have given up now and get someone else to buy my stuff. retarded.

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rocdok

ps meant to say that i also had the Russian hacker episode where they changed my email to a hotmail. ru and charged a small amount for which i cancelled my card and got my money back. Amazon reversed my charges…..but alas i’m being held hostage by Amazon for someone else’s security issues…

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Randy Yoakum

I got hacked and someone changed my email and password. They made several charges which I caught. I called the number listed for help signing into my account. Girl was very short unhelpful and told me she couldn’t give me any information on orders I had or the status. She said someone would contact me by email in 48 hours. It’s been over a week and nothing. Called a customer service number and recording said no one was available to answer calls due to corona virus thing and hung up!?! Really? Very poor service for a giant multi-billon dollar company. You’re on your own if you get hacked!

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June

I am not sure how my Amazon account got hacked when the hacker does not seem to have access to my email. The only thing the hacker did was to delete my mobile number. But I have to say that it is because my account is inactive. The address I have in it is a very old address and I do not have credit card information. I am just curious as to how the hacker had managed to alter my mobile phone number without having access to my email.

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