"Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer" Scam - How to remove

Amazon Customer Survey scam, aka “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer”, has been going around the internet and popping up on people’s phones and computers. “Your IP address has been selected”, it says, and offers you a chance to win Apple iPhone 11 Pro, among other prizes. Amazon Customer Survey is nothing but a scam, though – it promises you a prize to get you to reveal your payment data, then it asks you to pay for various subscriptions, fees, shipment, etc. No iPhone is actually awarded to anyone.

About “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer” in short:

Classification	Scam.
How Amazon Customer Survey scam works	A “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer” pop-up offers you a free phone, a short survey is done on a site that borrows the looks of Amazon, you’re asked to fill in your payment details, you’re asked to buy or subscribe to some products, and to pay some fees.
Dangers	Your card may be changed for unclear reasons, you may be tricked into wasting your money and time with false promises of a valuable prize.
How to deal with the scam	Report it, block malicious websites, scan your device for malware (SpyHunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac)

Scams similar to “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer”

“Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer” is only one of many scams. There is quite a lot of Amazon-related deception online. For example, there’s Amazon Shopper Satisfaction survey that spreads via email and, at the end of the survey, offers to sell you some vitality pills and male watches. There are also surveys that offer a $1000 Amazon gift card that end up just signing you up for some rewards programs (the Amarktflow.com site is an example).

But Amazon Customer Survey scam is more similar to the Frees.best survey scam (“Dear Google user, congratulations!”). While it impersonates Google instead of Amazon and the site looks different, they both claim that your IP was selected to receive a phone (either an iPhone, or a Samsung).

There’s a caveat here. Some Amazon customer satisfaction surveys that are hosted on third-party sites do indeed offer gift cards and deliver. However, the language is often somewhat misleading, for example, after completing the survey you may find out that the rewards have run out. Plus, real surveys tend to offer small rewards, such as $5 or $10 gift cards. A far cry from the new phones that “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer” is promising.

How to tell that Amazon Customer Survey is a scam

Amazon Customer Survey scam starts with this pop-up:

Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer

Your IP address has been selected to receive a FREE $350 Amazon gift card, a Samsung Galaxy S9 or a iPhone 8.

To receive your gift, simply answer our anonymous survey. But hurry up! There are only a limited number of gifts left for today!

There are a few signs that this Amazon Customer Survey is not legitimate. Such as the disclaimer at the bottom of the site that reveals that any trademarks used by the site are not represented by it or associated with it. This Amazon Customer Survey is an “independent survey”. It may look like an Amazon site, but the disclaimer at the bottom is clear.

Amazon Customer Survey scam is definitely made to look as much like Amazon as possible. The URL may even have “amazon” in it. Here is an example of what that may look like:

amazon.com.whatever.site

At first glance, that URL may look like an official Amazon. But the site domain would actually be whatever.site. The rest of it is the subdomain. Any website owner can create as many subdomains as they want and call them anything they want. When you see a site address, look only at the last dot. The text before it is the real domain. (How to spot a fake URL)

Other signs are a bit more roundabout. For example, there are a few user reviews in the Amazon Customer Survey scam site. The reviews have photos next to them. I looked up the photos and they have been used in some other reviews on other websites. Makes you wonder how many customer testimonies are even real.

Another problem with Amazon Customer Survey scam is that, well, if you search online for “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer” or even just “Amazon survey”, you will get a lot of results about scams. Because these scams have existed for years. They get especially active during the holidays.

Is Amazon Customer Survey dangerous?

The Amazon Customer Survey itself does nothing. It asks you a few questions about your demographics, shopping habits, and your opinions on Amazon. Then, it all comes together:

Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer

Your Apple iPhone 11 Pro has been reserved!.

Instructions to get your gift:

1. To receive your Apple iPhone 11 Pro, it is necessary to fill in your information on the next page.

Did you catch that? To receive your Apple iPhone 11 Pro, you need to fill in your information. What if Amazon already has yours? Doesn’t matter – “Congratulations Dear Amazon Customer” is not associated with Amazon. They don’t have info about you, but they want it.

Next, you’re asked to fill in your payment details, plus your name and address. Amazon Customer Survey scam doesn’t give you the iPhone, but it does offer you products that affiliated with the scammers. From Amazon Customer Survey’s disclaimer again:

*Trial offers offered on the last page require shipping and handling fees.

Of course they require additional fees. If you gave these scammers your information, your credit card may see unexpected charges. With all that data, a lot of harm can be done by scammers if they decide to impersonate you and pay for some products.

What to do about Amazon Customer Survey

First, if you have been scammed, you may want to report it to your country’s online crimes agency. These vary in each country, for example, here is what the UK advises its citizens. It’s good to report this even if you may not get your money back:

• reports help other people find out about the scam and may help stop the criminals,
• having it on record that your details were stolen may help you defend yourself in case your identity is misused by criminals in the future.

Also, it’s a good idea to use web protection to block malicious websites. Amazon Customer Survey scam, for example, is promoted by sites like Click-on-this-now.online, Click-now-on.me, Click-on-this.today, etc. These sites are known for being malicious, so having a program to stop them from loading on your computer would be useful.

You may also want to scan your computer for malware with a reputable program (like SpyHunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, or another). And check your browser for suspicious extensions. Most likely, though, you encountered Amazon Customer Survey scam by visiting suspicious websites and your device is clean. Just be careful and don’t give your data to anyone you don’t trust.

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