Jeff received this email from Amazon warning against a phishing scam bent on swiping your password. Here’s the email:

From:
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:16 PM
To: <[redacted]@hotmail.com>
Cc:
Subject: Your Amazon.com password has been changed

Dear [redacted],

This is an important message from Amazon.com

As a precaution, we’ve reset your Amazon.com password because you may have been subject to a “phishing” scam.

Here’s how phishing works:

A scam artist sends an e-mail, which is designed to look like it came from a reputable company such as a bank, financial institution, or retailer like Amazon.com, but is in fact a forgery. These e-mails direct you to a website that looks remarkably similar to the reputable company’s website, where you are asked to provide account information such as your e-mail address and password. Since that web site is actually controlled by the phisher, they get the information you entered.

Go to amazon.com/phish to read more about ways to protect yourself from phishing.

To regain access to your Amazon customer account:

1. Go to Amazon.com and click the “Your Account” link at the top of our website.

2. Click the link that says “Forgot your password?”

3. Follow the instructions to set a new password for your account.

Please choose a new password and do not use the same password you used with us previously.

Thank you for your interest in Amazon.com

Sincerely,

Amazon.com

Also, avoid messages from people who claim to be password inspectors. Everyone knows real-life password inspectors do their jobs door-to-door.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.