Questions may or may not actually have been asked frequently.

NATO phonetic alphabet conversion tool

Having trouble spelling out your mail address, street, city, etc. to call center agents? Use the NATO phonetic alphabet! Simply enter in the first box below what you need spelled out and it'll appear in the second box. Anything you enter is processed locally in your browser, nocarder.com can't see what you write here. Feel free to unplug your internet before entering anything, it'll still work. Source code.

What is Amazon's phone number?

As of April 2023:

• US (.com):
  • 1-800-388-5512 (U.S. and Canada)
  • +1-206-577-1364 (international)
  • 1-855-745-5725 (Amazon Pharmacy)
  • (206) 266-4064 (copyright agent from legal department)
  • +1-206-266-4064 (copyright agent from legal department international number)
• Australia (.com.au): 1800-571-894 (local) +81113509545 (international*)
• Brazil (.com.br): 0800 037 0715 (9:00 to 23:00 Brazil time)
• Canada (.ca): 1-877-345-3364
• China (.cn): 4008105666
• Egypt (.eg): 08000262966
• France (.fr): +33800915508
• Germany (.de): 0800 1807736 (local) 00498938034882 (international)
• India (.in): 180012001593
• Italy (.it): 800729016 (local) +39 02 82950305 (international.. and Vodafone customers?)
• Japan (.co.jp): 0120-899-190 (local) 81-22-745-0058 (international)
• Mexico (.com.mx): 800-874-8725 (6:00 to 22:00, central time)
• Netherlands (.nl): 0800 022 4059 (toll free for the Netherlands) 0800 71405 (toll free for Belgium) +31 20 8084897 (international)
• Poland (.pl): 800 919 399 (local) +48 22 306 51 04 (international)
• Saudi Arabia (.sa): 8008500931
• Singapore (.sg): Don't call us, we'll call you.
• Spain (.es): 900 831 773 (local) +34 911 230 000 (international)
• Sweden (.se): 0200 753 368 (local) +46 8 446 891 36 (international)
• Turkey (.com.tr): 00800142030233
• United Arab Emirates (.ae): +97145732000
• United Kingdom (.co.uk): +44 808 1453768 (local) +44 207 0847918 (international)

You don't have to call the international number, but some providers might not support toll free numbers. To dial international numbers you may have to replace the plus sign with 00 depending on your provider and phone. To find the number yourself: try to log in. Click "Forgot your password?", "Customer service", try the various dropdown options.

* +81 is the country code for Japan, +61 is the code for Australia, but it's not a typo. Nocarder verified the number and it's answered with "Welcome to Amazon" (in English) while replacing +81 with +61 results in "number not connected".

What is Amazon's mail address?

The following mail addresses (append @amazon.com to each) possibly accept incoming mail:

• ofm (Seemingly fraud-related, unknown what it stands for. Online Fraud Management?)
• jeff (You get either no response at all or a mail from Executive Customer Relations on behalf of Bezos. Then, ECR will ghost you.)
• aws-verification (Amazon Web Services, account verification related. Unlikely to respond to marketplace issues. And judging by what people say, won't necessarily respond to AWS issues either)
• amazon-pr (public relations, only for media inquiries)
• aws-pr (public relations for Amazon Web Services)
• copyright (Copyright Agent of Amazon.com Legal Department, for filing DMCA takedown requests)

They may also work on other Amazon domains (like .de, .nl, etc) but YMMV. According to Reddit, cs-reply, cis and primary just bounce these days. If you know others that do work, tell nocarder.

How do I chat with Amazon's customer service?

You need an account for this.

• Amazon.com: from your account overview, click "Customer Service", "Something else", "I need more help", "Start chatting now".
• Amazon.de: from your account overview, click "Kontaktiere uns", "Hilfe bei einem anderen Problem", "Sonstiges", "Kontaktiere uns".
• Amazon.nl: from your account overview, click "Contact", "Iets anders", "Contact", "Begin nu met chatten".

How do I contact Amazon on social media?

If you mention @AmazonHelp, @Amazon, @JeffBezos or say the keyword "Amazon driver" on Twitter it will magically attract a response from @AmazonHelp. These are all equally effective. Mentioning Jeff doesn't result in a better response. Unless Jeff is already following you. Jeff is not following you.

NEVER SEND AMAZON A COPY OF A GOVERNMENT-ISSUED ID!

Seriously, don't do it! This will put you at risk of identity theft, no joke. They may request this on the document upload form you see when your account is suspended. On the same form, they warn you to cover all but the last four numbers of your credit card. Which effectively communicates their accounts specialists and/or infrastructure can't be depended on to handle sensitive data securely. How long do they store documents? Where? (US? India? Philippines? Wherever they outsourced it?) It's a potential gold mine for black hats. Before nocarder.com existed, their upload form appeared to be broken for Firefox users. How much confidence does that inspire in their infrastructure? A copy of any government-issued ID is much, much more delicate than a silly credit card. If your credit card information is stolen, what happens? Some fraudulent charges, so you'll lose some money. Assuming you don't manage to block the card in time, you stand to lose whatever your remaining spending limit is. Then you block the card and apply for a new one. Insurance may or may not cover the costs, but it doesn't matter. Typically it's just money.

Now try having your identity stolen because some account "specialist" decides to sell the copies of government IDs they receive or Amazon's document storage gets hacked. And while I hate to give anyone ideas, it's really Amazon's fault this is plausible at all: a criminal could mass-mail random people, saying their Amazon account is on hold and they need to provide a copy of a government-issued ID to unlock it. The mail would include a link to a phishing site that is maintained by the criminal. What could a criminal do with this information?

• Open bank accounts in your name.
• Launder money in your name.
• Buy weapons and other items that may be used for criminal activity in your name.
• Rent a car in your name.
• Buy cryptocurrency in your name. No, most crypto isn't untraceable.
• Create a forged ID with your information but a different photo.

And yes, that's Amazon's fault. If Amazon didn't ever ask for ID, we could educate people that "E-mail that asks for a copy of your ID is a SCAM, delete it immediately!" Maybe we should teach people that anyway.

How do I pass the verification from account "specialists"?

First of all: if you have multiple accounts, focus on your first account. Forget the others for now. As long as related older closed accounts exist they will not reopen your account. They will let you waste time uploading documents, but the check for related accounts isn't done until they are satisfied with the documentation. And if you manage through either luck or a fluke to get one account reopened, say your prayers and forget the other accounts if you don't really need them. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Now it's gonna get weird. There are some things you can do, but none of these make any sense.

Seems legit.

For $~80K/yr one would expect employees who can read, but reality begs to differ. They have severe trouble actually reading any documents you give them. You must do their job for them. You need to annotate your documents to indicate where the desired information is. Always use Comic Sans, the most reviled font in the world. It is highly legible, which is required. Use a contrasting and basic color. On a white background, blue works well.

If the document is a scan, photo or screenshot, just use MS Paint or whatever you have at your disposal. If the document comes in PDF format you can use Xournal. Write "last four digits", "name", "address", "date" and whatever else they ask for in an empty spot and draw lines from the words to the requested information. If the result looks like something made by a kindergarten student, you did it right. See the image to get the idea.

They are also picky. Like, really picky. They want to see exactly what they are asking for. Your EXACT name. The last FOUR digits, if your bank only prints three that will NOT suffice. Your address MUST be there, if your bank or utility company doesn't print it, no dice! So here is some advice: if you can make a choice between various documents, for example between utility bills for various services, pick the closest match. Is your water bill still using your maiden name, different from your credit card? Find another bill. Or call the water company and have them change your name. Seriously.

Are none of the utility bills in your name? Then don't bother. Yes, Amazon says that in that case you should indicate the relation between you and the person who pays the bill. While I haven't actually tried this, it's predictable what would happen next. They would ask for scans of a marriage certificate, scans of a rent agreement with both of your names or, if you're just friends with benefits, a video of the both of you doing it. With recognizable faces so they can compare it to your passport photos. Obviously I'm joking and yet I wouldn't be surprised one bit if they actually did that. If they requested something insane from you, please contact nocarder.

Now, the smart cookies among you are possibly thinking.. How does Amazon verify this crap anyway? The water company or your bank ain't gonna tell 'em if those documents are legit. So how could they possibly know?

They can't. I'm not saying you should forge a document to say exactly what the account "specialists" want to hear. Document forgery is illegal in many places, please don't do it. If Amazon does catch you you're well and truly done. While they can't verify the legitimacy of most documents, they can look for signs of forgery. What I am saying is that fraudsters don't care if it's illegal, and I'm also saying any half-decent forgery is likely to be accepted. Or declined on grounds unrelated to the forgery. The whole system is a smokescreen, unrelated to effective fraud prevention. Why it exists at all is beyond me. Presumably smoke and mirrors were cheaper than actual security. For an example of an actually secure platform, see iDEAL. In the world of credit cards a similar security level is possible with at least Mastercard, but the store or payment processor needs to enable it. When adding a card, Paypal appears to use it. Amazon doesn't. Update: I've learned this additional security is 3-D Secure. Amazon uses it but not consistently. Rabobank and ING NL support it but Amazon doesn't use it. I found out Amazon can use 3-D Secure when I used a virtual card from another bank.

How do I deal with account issues on a foreign Amazon?

A typical German person

Say you are from Germany. You eat Bratwurst und trinke Lager auf Oktoberfest, and you have an account issue on Amazon.com. You should probably try to solve it, but if that doesn't work you should ask them to transfer the problem to "your" Amazon, like Amazon Germany. Amazon Germany is more likely to understand your situation, culture, the banking system and your language. And don't forget: no expensive long-distance calls. Long-distance calls are much cheaper with a cheap VoIP account (I call the US for 2ct/m from Europe), but not everyone has that set up. If you want help with that, try asking r/VOIP or any tech forum.

If Amazon refuses to transfer your issue, keep politely bugging them. Both your local Amazon and the Amazon where you have an issue. Never be rude! If all else fails, mail Jeff. Keep it short. Like really short, 500 characters tops I guess. And get straight to the point. If you get no response from ECR on behalf of Jeff: create a website, pay for a decade of domain+hosting in advance, create social media accounts and politely ask Jeff for a comment. That's how you get to Amazon's Executive Customer Relations who may still ghost you but will perhaps forward the issue to your local Amazon before that. Um, I suppose the last part isn't overly practical for most people..?

How do I prevent this from happening to me?

Every time you place an order, your order is likely silently awarded a fraud score by Amazon's fraud bot. This typically happens within 2 minutes after you've placed an order. Exceed some preset threshold and your account gets suspended. Some general advice to keep your score down:

• Ensure the name, address and phone number in your Amazon account match those from your credit card as closely as possible.
• Don't use a credit card or delivery address that is associated with any suspended account.
• Don't create more than one account.
• Triple-check your credit card details before you add them as a payment method on Amazon.
• Ensure your card can be charged for any orders you place.
• Never buy any gift card on Amazon. The fraud bot will be on you like white on rice. Amazon gift cards are a dangerous gift and gift cards for other shops can be bought elsewhere.
• Never use an Amazon gift card. Tell your friends you'd rather get anything else.
• And buying gift cards with gift cards is literally a violation of the Balance and Amazon.com Gift Card Terms and Conditions: "Your Amazon.com Balance cannot be used to purchase other Gift Cards, prepaid open loop cards, or certain third-party gift cards". According to reports they don't stop you from trying (as a honeypot) but will instaban when you do it.
• Avoid spending unusually much. As a general rule: your first order shouldn't exceed $30. No more than double the value with each subsequent order. For example: $25, $50, $82, $150, $290, $580, $1100. Always wait for one order to arrive before placing another. For digital orders (music, subscriptions, etc), wait 24 hours.
• Don't order with someone else's account but your credit card because you're lazy or whatever.
• Don't order with someone else's credit card but your account because they want to pay for something for you. Do a wire transfer or give cash.
• Don't use a VPN, proxy or similar when placing an order.
• Never review any product.
• Avoid returning products at all cost.
• By extension: if you need something really expensive like a high-end laptop, consider buying elsewhere. Assuming your account won't be suspended, Amazon seems to handle the return-refund scam rather poorly. Scammer buys product, swaps it for something inferior and seals it back up, returns it for a refund, inferior item gets restocked and sold to you. Which forces you to try and get a refund. Customer service says "no problem just return it special 100% guaranteed refund for you my friend" but once returned they say "you shipped the wrong product and we disposed of it, no refund 4 u".
• Also avoid buying items you are likely to return, like clothing in different sizes where you intend on keeping the size that fits best.

And in case the fraud bot tackles you anyway:

• Ensure you have at least one utility bill on the same name and address. If you don't have this consider calling a utility company to have the name changed.
• Use a credit card from an issuer that provides a billing statement that includes the last four digits of the card and your address.

Naturally there are no official sources on safe order values. At one point Amazon customer service told me $500 is considered a big order, though another agent suggested I split my order of $2500 in two or three smaller orders.. so they don't really know. But if you never bought from Amazon before and are tempted by a discounted laptop or TV.. hold your horses.

Many more factors could be involved. Payment methods from least to most suspect: wire transfer/iDeal, credit card for which Amazon supports 3-D Secure, credit card without 3-D Secure, gift card. I wouldn't be surprised if a wire transfer would bypass the fraud bot altogether as there are no chargebacks possible. Meanwhile, gift cards are notorious for getting accounts suspended. Buying a product that can be resold easily (most notoriously gift cards, iPhones and iPads) is likely a trigger as well. Gifting to someone else or entering a new delivery address could also be a trigger. Finally, gifting to someone who is a longtime loyal Amazon customer doesn't exempt you from the fraud bot. It kinda would make sense if it did, but it doesn't.

Nothing worked, can I never use Amazon again?

If Amazon closed an account, regardless of the reason, any new accounts that are created are likely to get automatically closed. Cnet has described how a customer got around this but seemingly missed a few details. The delivery address is key. So after a ban, one would have to move house to get back on Amazon. There are "reship" companies that can provide one with a virtual address, in some cases that might work as an alternative to moving house. Other factors that Amazon could be using to identify a customer are less costly to change:

• Email: email address, obviously.
• Phone number: both landline and mobile numbers.
• Device: using a device that was used to visit Amazon before could result in accounts getting connected. A fresh installation of the operation system on a computer or factory reset on a phone or tablet would generally prevent this, especially if the device is a popular model. (e.g. iPhone)
• Other device info: this is only theory, but if Amazon knows the serial number of any of one's devices they could potentially recognize it even after a factory reset. This is also true for one's WiFi. The Amazon website wouldn't be able to access either of those, but any app can have many more permissions. The actual serial number usually shouldn't be accessible though. There are many other ways an app could identify a customer though. For example, with access to one's contacts those could be used to identify a customer.
• Amazon devices: needless to say, technically Amazon could easily track their own devices, including their serial number.
• Browser: could be identified by user agent, among other things.
• Cookies and LocalStorage: if they are not removed they could be used to link accounts. Factory resets may be more effective in some cases though.
• Internet: other than what Cnet says I'm not sure using a VPN would be a smart move, after moving house one should have a new IP anyway. However, if an old device with Amazon cookies was used on the new IP it might help. Residential IPs often change though. As an experiment: write down your current IP and unplug your modem overnight. Depending on your provider, you'll have a different IP in the morning.
• Name: unlike what Cnet says, using a fake name could be counterproductive. Unless that name is very rare (and even if it is), a name is unlikely to be useful as the sole link to a closed account. A payment method that only uses initials (like J. Johnson) could make a name less unique. When it comes to package delivery, unless the delivery driver asks for ID they really don't care if a package is addressed to Wile E. Coyote. Even if you have to sign for it.
• Payment: Amazon likely also links accounts using payment method. So without a new credit/debit card, virtual card or bank account accounts would likely get connected. In the US, privacy.com issues virtual cards. In Europe, Openbank and Revolut issue debit cards without a monthly fee.

Lemmy Morgan has also written a lengthy and informational post about this subject. Obviously all of this is purely hypothetical and not meant as advice.

I'm a suit from Amazon, what can I do about this?

Besides actually solving my problem? So glad you asked!

• Stop asking for government-issued IDs. If you continue asking for these at all, clearly indicate what information must be visible and allow the customer to blank everything else. Note that the document ID must be wiped without question: there is at least one bank (Openbank) that uses this as a username.
• Provide a tool within the document upload form that allows customers to blank unneeded information.
• Ensure any uploaded document is permanently shredded immediately after review. Overwrite the data, no backups.
• Since you won't do that, keep track of which account specialist reviewed documents for which customer account ID. When (not if) an account specialist decides to sell customer data on the black market, you might be able to find who leaked the data. It's too late at this point, so the actual purpose of all this is to instill fear upon your account specialists: if they even think about selling customer data, they'll be doomed.
• Account specialist cubicle: fully enclosed. Entrance requires passing through a metal detector. Smartphones are left outside. Smartphone or camera inside a cubicle, even for a joke? You're bloody fired. Inside the cubicle: display with privacy filter (not readable from cubicle entrance) bolted to the desk or wall. Permanent CCTV to monitor the employee, but CCTV may not capture the display. Wired keyboard with reinforced wire against tampering. Custom keyboard featuring only required keys. Use PS/2, not USB. Or make something custom. Computer not physically accessible. No wireless connectivity. Encrypt all connections. Most of this could alternatively be implemented as a cloud solution, but great care will have to be taken either way.
• Hire your own rogue account specialists whose job it is to try and steal customer data whilst remaining undetected. If anyone's gonna do it, they better be on your payroll.
• Make videos for social media of these guys and gals (who are on your payroll) when they get busted. Great PR. I'd watch that.
• Communicate clearly to the customer how you shred their information after review and how you ensure their information won't leak.
• Clearly indicate who handles your information and where. Is the document reviewed by an employee in the US or elsewhere? Is it reviewed by someone working from home? (I'd hope you're not that stupid..)
• When customer service promises to get back to the customer within x period, get back to the customer within that period. Even if only to say you hit a roadblock and it'll take x amount of time longer than anticipated. Never ever ghost your customer.
• Always provide a timeline, even when forwarding a request to another department. Always.
• I've been ghosted repeatedly by your customer service. Ghost a customer once, have your bonus canceled. Ghost a customer again, have your job canceled. Without consequences, they'll keep doing it.
• Have mystery shoppers test your customer service. I mean, I should charge you for this crap.
• Find better ways to verify genuine customers. I have several ideas. See the next two bullet points.
• Bezos, Jassy: hire me, apparently I can see what you can't, and I'm leaving out a lot here. Willing to relocate to the US. Fortune favors the bold, no? Is this bullet point a joke? Halfway I suppose, so I hope you found it funny.
• Here's a freebie though: send a bloody letter by snail mail with a code. Yes, stamps cost money, but I doubt a stamp costs more than me bugging your customer service for hours. And that process can be virtually completely automated while your account "specialists" earn $~80K/yr. Especially when you factor in that for the price of a stamp you could have solved the problem, which customer service did not. There are faster/more convenient ways, but I'm not on your payroll.

Wait, you meant what can you do about this site? OOOoooh. Presumably you'd rather see it gone? That's too bad, it's not hosted on AWS because I'm not stupid. Take over the domain when it expires? You could try that. In 2033. Maybe send a baseless cease-and-desist letter? See below for contact info.

Who operates and funds this site?

A disgruntled Amazon customer. Not George Soros.

How do I contact nocarder.com?

Contact nocarder by mail or on Twitter (@nocardercom).

For case submissions, see the list of victims.