# What's behind the Amazon "your order was cancelled" apparent scam. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-amazon-your-order-was-cancelled-apparent-scam/614882 "2012-03-06T02:18:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-amazon-your-order-was-cancelled-apparent-scam/614882/1 "2012-03-06T02:18:51Z")
In the past several weeks I have received several emails supposedly from Amazon telling me that my order has been cancelled. There is an order number and a link but my email server identified them as “suspicious”. I just deleted the emails because nothing registered with as to a cancelled order even though I do order things from Amazon. I’m thinking that by clicking the link a virus, trojan horse or something else insidious will attempt to infect my computer. So what is this thing really about? I don’t want to investigate on my own because I don’t have the computer savvy to try to outsmart it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-amazon-your-order-was-cancelled-apparent-scam/614882/2 "2012-03-06T02:23:06Z")
More likely a phishing scam. The link will take you to a page that looks like the Amazon login page. They harvest your username and password then use it to order merchandise from Amazon. Also, since your ID usually has your e-mail, they can go to your e-mail and try logging on with the same password. People often use one password for multiple places, and that will get them into your e-mail to send more spam.