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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Mike

When your account is hacked it’s not because hackers were able to steal your email and password from you but because they were able to steal it from the company itself who didn’t take the appropriate measures to secure it. Of course, you will be led to believe that it’s your fault, that you didn’t choose a more complex password or that you were careless enough to be hacked. But the truth is very different.

If you check some specific websites over the internet, you’ll notice that many user accounts (Gmail, Netflix, Amazon..) are being shared for free. Those are entire lists of accounts that include your password and your email so even if you create the most complex password in the world, it doesn’t matter because they won’t steal it from you, they will steal it from the company like amazon or Netflix since your password is written in plain sight and stored somewhere, usually on a non protected server.

So even if you set up the 2FA, ask yourself who creates the code that will be texted to you? It’s the company itself. And where will it be stored? on one of their servers.

It would take too much time for hackers to individually steal your info whereas they can steal hundreds of them for the same amount of efforts.

So if a billion dollar company like Netflix or Amazon does nothing to protect your account, you may seriously ask yourself if you want to do business with them or take some extra measures than simply focusing on the complexity of your password or the 2FA which won’t prevent you from being hacked. Hackers breach into these companies everyday

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Nigel armstrong

Well said thank you my account was hacked not once but twice all amazon did was lock me out of my account and ask me for sensitive info inorder to get back in nopeeeee

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Kim

Its NOT AMAZON OR NETFLIX it’s GOOGLE HACKERS!!!!! I have internal documents that one of these genius idiots hid in a widget in my phone. I don’t trust anyone to give them up to, but its basically Google execs stating to their hackers that they were monetizing the different levels of hacking these scumbags could achieve up to like $300,00 for each acct they were able to install specific spyware into, they’re going thru the open source 3rd party software, giving themselves permissions to hack ALL of your accts then they stalk, harass, steal & delete accounts & Google encouraged them to be as abusive IN WRITING as they needed to be. I have police reports, 7 files worth of info I’ve documented I can’t have an email account they’ve deleted 81 email addresses hit my bank acct every single month for over a year stolen stimulus checks, unemployment benefits entire paychecks from my family & Amazon DID give me an entire years worth of refunds & those trash bag nerds stole it back IM NOT EVEN EXAGGERATING A LITTLE. My daughter passed away in part because of the 3 jobs she had & all the money she was.losing they broke her & then the sons of bitches were flash cammng me while my soul was being ripped out trying to call my.hubby. They even hacked & flash cam my 13 yr old grand daughter. I reported to FBI waiting on them to.turn.over.documents they get your WiFi network name & password.& this once that happens you either accept you’re being stalked & can’t do a damn thing until the Feds are ready.or you get rid of all devices.& stay off line I even replaced everything phones , modems every device we had & they had my info & hacked back in within 48 hours, I wonder how much someone’s child is worth to Google??? & how many other lives these greedy money grubbing soulless pigs have destroyed……..its disgusting & it IS Google & their hacks rats

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Logan Mckenna

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John Bennett

Bang on, My account was used to try and purchase a £600 hard drive my an unknown person, Amazon refuse to say it was hacked ?
Also a seller E-mailed me on my address BUT used a persons name to whom i send goods to Via Email her name ONLY appears on my Amazon account , Amazon have tried as a gesture of good will to give me first £25 now £75. Thy say “In relation to the concern you have raised regarding an attempt that was made to place an order on your Amazon account without your authorisation, following our thorough review, we found no evidence of a security breach in respect of your account when the order was made. It is possible that your contact details, which may be in the public domain, were obtained outside of our websites. Scammers and fraudsters also use sophisticated programs and spoofing technology to access accounts.” Well yeah BUT thy got it either direct from Amazon OR by being hacked ??? So Again HOW can a complete stranger order goods worth £600 from my account ? The postal address was hidden BUT surly Amazon have some idea ?? Either way it was NOT me. .. how do i know it was my 60 th birthday i was in the middle of the Mediterranean sea at the time ??

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Kara

My mom’s account was completely hijacked. The hackers changed her password, and possibly her email address too? I didn’t pay close enough attention to the info my mom listed on her account when she set it up. She listed her home number instead of her cell and saved her bank card info. Someone ordered a $1k iPad and mailed it to her.
WHAT.A.NIGHTMARE.
We called in almost daily, to the number provided within this article, for 2-3 mo. Each and every time we called, there was no record of us calling. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. I have no explanation other an Amazon employee must have been behind this mess. I tweeted, emailed, and posted on FB trying to get help bc we got nowhere with the phone number.
There is no way to make a return if you can’t log into your account. My mom was in tears almost daily. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. Her bank was involved. On like call 3,290, Amazon emailed return labels/info, to her bank, in order for her to return the iPad. Certainly they mailed it with tracking info. I don’t recall, BUT her bank account was never credited the $1k for the returned iPad… SHOCKING. After about 3mo of this BS, her bank credited the $1k to her account, and they ate the $1k. This never got resolved and JUST THIS MONTH, she got a password reset notification sent to her email…

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Robert Mielczarek

I had the same experience. My account was hacked and 4 unauthorized purchases were made. I reported this to Amazon immediately, changed my password and disputed the charges. Few days later my Amazon account was locked. I made numerous phone calls with no resolution. 4 weeks later I received an email from Amazon stating that my credit card withdrew the payment for the fraudulent transactions thus, they locked my account until I submit a payment for those fraudulent purchases. I responded via email. as there is no other way to communicate with the “account specialist” that I am not willing to pay for the items I did not order or receive. It has been 5 weeks now and my account is still locked with no communication when it will be open.
It is frustrating that a multibillion company cannot protect their customers from theft and ask their customers to pay for items they never ordered. It is sad and disappointing.
Jeff Bezos who goes around and gives speeches how Amazon is “abscessed with its customers” should experience what his customers are going through and apologize for making false claims.

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Donna Macera-Bourgeois

Same happened to me, almost exactly. Until they resolve I can’t use Kindle Unlimited, the Alexas, etc. I just closed the new credit card I linked to the account after the first one was breached so they can’t charge my credit card. I even have a police report, no go.

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Not Telling you

I’m still being hacked 8 echoes 2 echo subs a show 8 a 2 fire TVs a tablet and computer unusable. 2 phones unusable. About 3500 in damages. Went to the FBI and they are investigating. They say to let them keep doing it so I will. That is how they will get the I.p. signatures they need. I BA k traced the communication that got me hacked in the first place and it came from Amazon. Its their affiliates doing it. They know I’m on to it that’s why they thought they killed all communication. They didn’t. I have a non internet phone. Land kind e that is from a different provider with picture evidence of the email and hackers picture that they brazingly put in my contacts and thought they erased.

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Cindy Welty

WOW, Robert, your story is ny exact story as well, same thing happened to me and I noticed prime credit balance wss way too high, called Amazon, sure enough unauthoriz3e purchades were in Archived orders. When Chase reversed charges I got same email about account locked until I give new card info to pay for it. That wasc2 weeks ago. I am just so angry with Amazon but have decided even if they fixed this and unlocked my account, I am nit using them again. I have since been using ebay, Mercari, Walmart and Walgreens and I am ok with it. Horrible that they do not care.

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Tre

Has this been resolved? Same happened to me! Account still locked!

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Marcie

The exact same thing happened to me. Someone ordered a macbook – I have no idea where it was sent and it didn’t show up in orders. My email was hacked as well and all amazon emails were set to be sent to trash. I have changed all pwords.

Amazon has locked me out but I can only get standard replies from them. No answer to my questions. I’m going to have to move to Roku and figure out where to get books, maybe back to paper? When I have spoken to anyone at Amazon they don’t seem to know what they are doing. I even question if the emails or people I spoke with are really from Amazon. This is maddening. I have spent thousands with them. Time to unravel my life from Amazon.

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Phyllis Keene

This story sounds like what I’m going through right now. Any email that I received from Amazon told me how I can pay for the fraudulent charges of $3,110. When Amazon says they take fraud seriously they’re lying! From the minute I saw an order that I didn’t place I really felt that it was an Amazon staff member. I was on my account before I went to bed. Approximately 5 or 6 hours I was on there & saw the fraudulent order. I contacted them immediately. I was told to change my password & Amazon would credit my account when I returned the order. Of course I couldn’t get into my account either. It took me more hours to try & take care of this then most people work in a week. I called the credit card company, they closed out the card I had used & issued another. Anything that I ordered in May I didn’t receive. I’m going to fill out paperwork in the Top Class Action Lawsuits. May I suggest that anyone that’s been hacked on Amazon & then Amazon tries screwing us for their lack of security. I received my last statement & Amazon billed me again for the fraudulent order. I believe that Amazon is committing fraud when they are billing us again when they know damn well it was a fraudulent order. I’ve never had an order of mine shipped out that fast. According to FEDERAL LAW IF YOU REPORTED THE FRAUD WITHIN 30 DAYS, $50 is the MOST YOU WILL PAY. I am so happy that I clicked on here because they are really trying to stick it to me. I told them to check the IP Address that it was ordered from. I believe that they are legally obligated to give us that information. We can report to the BBB, there’s a Consumer site. I received an email saying that Amazon has resolved the issue with my card company. They’ve done all they can do to help. I asked what policy & procedures did they use to rectify the situation. If that was Amazon helping & investigating I call BS. I really hope that you will contact Top Class Action Lawsuits. They need to quit harassing the little people. Google Amazon employees & what they’ve stolen & if they were moved, fired, or anything. I’m sure this is illegal & as I said, Federal law limits our share of $50 if we reported it within 30 days. Alone we will not get anywhere, together we can make a difference & make them pay for the stress, worry, headaches & more caused by Amazon that refuse to admit fraud is running ramped at Amazon. I didn’t think that Amazon would be this greedy, rude, & hiding. Good luck to all of you. If you choose to go to the Top class action lawsuit I’ll see you there. Another thing that really sucks is that I returned the order. There’s a need site that I’m on almost every day & they ask people to submit stories & they pay for them. I will tell everyone I know & I’m a stand up comedian & I’ll start doing a Public Service Announcement so the real number of victims will start coming out.

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Rhonda Powell

I had a text to my phone about a $2600 purchase I called the number. They answered AMAZON had the last 4 numbers of my credit card had the cell phone number associated with the Amazon account was able to send verification texts. Said to catch the hackers I had to buy two $500 Target cards. Stupid me I did. When they said I needed to buy four more told them to go to hell. I called Amazon they made a report of it but they didn’t want any other information. They deleted the account with the associated email [ I had a problem about a month ago with the wrong email address and changed it it had created a wrong email; used an email I don’t use to often]. I was dissappointed in that. I love AMAZON but they didn’t seem to care. Second problem with them. So I should have known better. I was upset about something else and just wasn’t thinking.

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T. H.

I received an email that looked just like other order confirmations I have received from Amazon in the past. The email was to confirm my order for an 86 inch television to be delivered to an address in another state. The email further stated if you did not make this order, then please call 1-800-865-2314 to report to our fraud protection team. I called this number & was transferred to a member of the Amazon “fraud department”. The call was extremely convincing because the supposed representative had my mailing address, last 4 of the credit card on file, a record of my past Amazon orders, names of people I had shipped directly to. He (supposed representative) said that hackers had gotten into my Amazon account and most likely had my IP address which would allow them access to all my personal data. He could remove the hackers by installing software but I would have to pay for the software with Google Pay Cards at $200.00 and the money spent would be credited back to my Amazon account. Since he had all the information from my Amazon account, I fell for the scam. BEWARE – he was very convincing. After sending him $$ via Google Play Card, he said there were 4 different hackers so in order to get rid of them all, he would need to install software 4 different times because they were all in different states. When I decided something was not right with his stories, I took the actual Amazon phone number from my credit card statement after he said to Google search his number if I was suspicious. I did this and it did list the number as Amazon. I still called the number off my CC & was put in contact with the real fraud department. The person (Andrea) was most helpful. We placed a hold on my account, I called the bank associated with my Amazon account & cancelled the card. I sent a copy of the email to stop spoofing & to the Federal Trade Commission. After reading all of these stories and customer data was not properly protected, Amazon should reimburse customers who have lost money.

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janenne clark

how can you do the auto pay for the subscription plans of unlimited or prime.

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deborah

OK, all these horrible stories of been swindled. WHERE are the SOLUTIONS ?? Anyone successfully win? And, would you buy a security program like Locksafe or the like? What are ways people DID get real help??

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John Bennett

I am still awaiting Amazon to explain how a seller managed to use information stored on my account ?
Basically I wrote a bad review quite legitimately about a product in October last year, a year later the seller tried to bribe me to take down the review BUT he addressed the E-mail to a person I have sent goods to in the past ? HOW did a seller from Amazon manage to use a name in my postal addresses ? Amazon said it was my fault and to change my password saying the seller must have hacked my PC ? Nope the information is stored on Amazon in my account ? so if its that easy to get a name from my account what else can a seller or person working for Amazon get.

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Terry Vanzanella

I’ve had it with Amazon! For the last year I have had problems with my account being hacked by someone in Ohio. I must have had 6 or more conversations regarding this, for what good that did! I had to close down my Amazon account and NOT EVEN that helped! I was getting emails regarding my purchases of TV’s, 120 I-BOXES, cell phones and a $1500.35 computer all being shipped to Ohio! On an account that had been closed for months! ( I live in Tx) I can’t tell you how many barley English speaking ‘customer service’ reps that I have spoken too. My account had been closed down for 6 to 8 weeks when I got notice that my $1500.35 computer was going to be shipped to my address in Ohio!! When I called I was treated like I was the hacker/theft and one reps even told me to SHUT UP! because I was upset because my CLOSED ACCOUNT with Amazon was being used to purchase I-Boxes and computers! and no one gave a damn! I will sue them if these charges show up on either my debit or one of my credit cards. After a year of this don’t give a crap attitude I HAVE HAD IT WITH AMAZON.

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Terry Vanzanella

I keep getting notices from Amazon about purchases I made. Problem is I closed my Amazon account 2- 3 months ago. I was told by them the account is closed and I even tried to get in and it won’t let me. BUT I just got a phone call from AMAZON regarding my purchase of a TV! this is 3 to 4 month after the account has been closed down!! HOW CAN THESE PEOPLE WITH AMAZON BE SO STUPID and how can a purchase be made or attempt to made made on an account that has been closed for months!

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Jls

Happened to me. At one point, got an email from ebay saying that someone logged into my account, which I didn’t, so checked it out and sure enough the hacker changed the password but managed to recover the account, deleted payment information, and requested an account closure.

No messages from amazon, but thought I should check, and sure enough, same darn thing. I managed to recover the first time with the lost password thing, called amazon and what a nightmare. It took a very long time for me to get them to suspend the account which is the most they would do, for some reason they said that they cannot close the account! Then I got a charge on my credit card when I bought nothing a few months later, called up amazon, and they had reactivated the account!!!!!!! had 2 fraudulent orders put in and sent to hidden addresses, one of which I managed to stop just in the nick of time because the item was not delivered yet, the other was shipped but yet again after a very long conversation and after 2 separate tries, got a refund apparently (have not received it yet, have to wait a few days). The fraudster even managed to hide amazon emails from me through the settings page so I did not even know what was going on, amazon unchecked that box for me and then proceeded to rearrange my account, including 2 step authentification. Sure enough, fraudster tried to access account at 3 in the morning but could not go any further because he did not get the verification code sent to the cellphone. He kept himself signed in and I signed him out, so my guess is that he’s figured everything out by now.
Anyways, I have basically rendered the account useless to anybody since no payment information is there and the 2 step verification stops anyone in their tracks.
So if you want to use amazon, my suggestion is to do like me, and just set up a different account AND use the 2 step authentication process.

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kimmy mcguire

so my account was hacked . i just recently changed my pass word and it is say that My account is locked i have ordered anything in a almost a year. but i recently ordered a coffee mug and some refrigator organtors with a gift card . how can my accout get unlocked ? i have recevied the coffee mug but not the other items what do i do get this resolved

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Lynn

My son hacked all my accounts threw a chrome book. I called my provider, he changed my password of all electronics. Changed aamazon account. Bank accounts everything.

I know his name and address.

Hate to feel this way but he hacked hisMOM’s account!!!!!

He ordered a pair of sunglasses he stole from me, and ordered them threw MY Amazon and had them delivered.

Don’t understand his thought process, they were $13.00!

I just want justice. What should I do?

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Jason Yu

One Gawddanm year later major breach in AWS Dec. 2021, I must be in the list, they charged my bank two apple watch totaling $700 hundred bucks, money is a big deal I’m on food stamps and government phone, but what worries me more than that is not the fact amadickzon is ghosting me lock my acct. and remove the order detail so no one can get to it, MFers no it’s the fact that my phone never alerted me with the 2 factor verify OTP code which I had setup with amaderfucinzon so they don’t just have breach there’s a security hole bigger than (insert your thought here) on their AWS which everyone uses Netflix to your cellular provider to PayPal, I mean everybody, this should worry whole lot of you.

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Cynthia Garrison

This was really good advice. You mentioned some things that I had not thought of..for example “NOT making your password an actual word but but random numbers”. This is my 3RD TIME BEING HACKED ON AMAZON. UGH!! 🤦My whole family uses our Amazon Prime account. I think I get hit the most because my card is the Default card so of course that that makes it easier for bakers once they get in. But I will DEFINITELY UNLINK ALL of the cards on our account ASAP. When I do get hacked by Amazon I usually let my bank handle the Fraud. My bank is Easier to get a hold of and their the ones who will be sending me a new card anyway. It really is a pain 🤬😤 when you have to go to your other accounts and reset them because of this.

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