Strange orders?
Password suddenly wrong?
A message that your account is locked?

Don't panic — most people get their Amazon account back.

Do the three things below right now, then follow the six steps in order.

Do these first — before anything else

Change your email password — the email address your Amazon account uses — and turn on two-step verification there. (Why first? See Step 1.)
Reset your Amazon password from a phone or computer you trust: type amazon.com yourself → Sign in → "Forgot password?"
Don't call any "Amazon" number from a text, email, or search result. Read the warning below before you ask anyone for help.

⚠️ Scam alert: fake "Amazon support" is hunting for you right now

Scammers plant fake Amazon phone numbersin search results, texts, and emails — and people searching for hacked-account help are their favorite target. The FTC's warning is blunt: "Don't trust the phone numbers or links that come up in search results." Amazon's own rule: "Do not call numbers sent over text or email, or found in online search results."
Real Amazon will never ask you to pay with gift cards, make you install software or give remote control of your computer to reach support, ask for payment over the phone or email, or ask for your bank-card details or other confidential information. Anyone who does is a scammer — hang up. One call center posing as companies like Amazon and Microsoft took $1.6 million from more than 1,300 people before the U.S. Department of Justice shut it down in 2022.
Only use a phone number or chat you reached by typing amazon.com into your browser yourself.

Part 1 — The first hour (do these now)

Step 1. Lock down your email first

Your email is the master key: Amazon password resets travel through it, and hackers often break into the inbox too.

From a device you trust, change your email password and turn on two-step verification (a sign-in code sent to your phone).

Then open your email settings and delete any forwarding rules or filters you didn't create — hackers add these to secretly read your mail, and the FTC and UK cyber authorities both warn about it.

Locked out of the email too?Recover it first with your email provider's own recovery steps — Google and Microsoft both publish them — then come back here.

Step 2. Reset your Amazon password

Type amazon.com into your browser, choose Sign in, then "Forgot password?".

Amazon sends a one-time code to the email or phone on the account.

Enter it and create a long, brand-new password you use nowhere else.

If you got an Amazon "Security Alert" message, choosing "Deny" / "it was not you" tells Amazon to start a password reset right away.

Step 3. Can't get in? Pick your situation

The hacker changed the email or phone on the account.The reset code can't reach you.

Use any recovery option the sign-in screen offers; if there isn't one, call the real Amazon: 1-888-280-4331 (24/7) — the number from Amazon's own contact page, confirmed by the Elliott Advocacy and GetHuman directories, June 2026.

Say "someone took over my account and changed the email," and be ready to prove who you are.

Locked out outside the U.S.?

Dial the same number.

Heads-up: 1-888-280-4331is Amazon's official customer-service line — not a SleuthX number. SleuthX will never call you about your Amazon account. Only trust a number you find by typing amazon.com into your browser yourself.

You have Two-Step Verification but can't get the code (lost or stolen phone).

Amazon's advice: first try signing in from a device you've used before, or with a backup method.

If nothing works, Amazon's account-recovery flow asks for a photo of a government ID and "can take 1–2 days."

Amazon locked the account itself (an "account on hold" after unusual payment activity).

Sign in and upload exactly what Amazon's message asks for — once is enough — through Amazon's own upload page; Amazon says that's "the fastest way to unlock your account."

Still able to sign in?

Use amazon.com → Help → Contact Us chat and ask for a call back — that's always the real Amazon.

Part 2 — Clean up and get your money back

Step 4. Undo the hacker's damage

Back in?

Go to Account → Login & Security and sign out of all devices and sessions.

Then sweep the account: remove addresses and payment cards you don't recognize, read Your Orders — including Archived Orders, near the bottom of the Account page, where hackers hide purchases — check your Amazon Pay activity and your gift-card balance.

Report anything you didn't buy with Amazon's Report Unauthorized Activity form: sign in, then go to account-status.amazon.com/report-unauthorized-activity.

Step 5. Get your money back

Report bad charges to Amazon andcall your bank or card company — Amazon's own help page says to contact your bank "as soon as possible."

Credit card? Federal law caps what you owe at $50 — usually $0 when only the number was stolen; send the card company a written dispute within 60 days of the statement that first shows the charge.

Debit card? Move faster: report within 2 business days to keep your cap at $50 — waiting can raise it to $500, or remove the cap entirely after 60 days.

Part 3 — Stop it from happening again

Step 6. Make it much harder to happen again

Turn on Two-Step Verification(Account → Login & Security): Amazon then asks for a code from your phone at sign-in, so a stolen password alone is useless.

Amazon also recommends adding both a mobile number and an email to the account, and setting up a passkey.

Forward the phishing email that started this to reportascam@amazon.com, and report the scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov — or IdentityTheft.gov if your personal information was misused.

The road back, at a glance

Secure your email
Reset Amazon password
Can't get in? Call 1-888-280-4331
Prove identity (ID · 1–2 days)
Clean up the account
Report charges (Amazon + bank)
Turn on Two-Step Verification

Stay safe

Do

Type amazon.com into your browser yourself
Use only a phone number shown on amazon.com
Turn on Two-Step Verification — on Amazon and your email
Tell your bank about strange charges right away

Don't

Call "Amazon" numbers from texts, emails, or search results
Pay anyone with gift cards to "fix" an account
Let a "helper" remote-control your computer
Share your password or one-time codes — with anyone

Related recovery guides

This guide is part of a series.

If a different account was hit:

If the break-in goes deeper than one account — drained funds, stolen identity, or an attacker who keeps getting back in — these SleuthX services can help:

A note from SleuthX

This guide is free, and the steps above are everything most people need to get their account back on their own.

If your case is unusually tangled — recovery keeps failing, you've lost every way to prove it's you, or the break-in looks like part of a bigger fraud (drained accounts, stolen identity, blackmail) — SleuthX investigates account-takeover cases and can help.

We're a digital-forensics firm; reaching out is optional and there's no charge to ask.

You can find us at sleuthx.ai or email quinn@sleuthx.ai.

Either way — you've got this.

Work the steps in order, and don't share your codes with anyone.

Where this comes from

Amazon Help — Reset Your Password
Amazon Help — About Security Alerts
Amazon Help — Recover Your Account after Two-Step Verification Fails
Amazon Help — Regain Access to an Account on Hold
Amazon — Report Unauthorized Activity form
Amazon Help — What is Two-Step Verification?
Amazon Help — How to keep your account safe and secure
Amazon Help — How to identify fake phone calls
Amazon Help & Contact Us (lists 1-888-280-4331; live June 2026)
Amazon contact page (same number; archived Jan 2026)
About Amazon: 6 tips to spot and avoid scams
Amazon Pay: Unauthorized charges
FTC — Amazon tops list of impersonated businesses
FTC — How To Recover Your Hacked Email or Social Media Account
FTC — Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
FTC — What To Do if You Were Scammed
CFPB: unauthorized charges
UK NCSC: Recovering a hacked account
Google: Secure a hacked or compromised Google Account
Microsoft: How to recover a hacked or compromised Microsoft account
U.S. DOJ press release, June 2022
Elliott Advocacy
GetHuman

This guide is informational and is not legal advice. SleuthX is an independent digital-forensics company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon.com, Inc. "Amazon," "Amazon.com," and "Amazon Pay" are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. Steps and timelines reflect official sources current as of June 2026 and may change. © 2026 SleuthX, Inc.