This morning, I got the following email from Amazon Payments: The Reply-To email address is of the form: payments-verification+[WorkerID] at amazon.com where [WorkerID] is a 14-character worker ID. Thing is, this is not *my* worker ID. I had not contacted Amazon Payments in regards to my account before today, regardless of what the email says. I logged into my Amazon Payments account, transferred a small amount and then made a withdrawal to my bank - no problems whatsoever. I am baffled as to why Amazon Payments is sending me emails regarding someone else’s worker ID. Has anyone else received similar communications from Amazon recently?
Sounds like an error. They make mistakes all the time. I wouldn't worry about it if your account is in good standing and all.
Also very possibly just a fishing email. They send it to enough people and make up a fake turk ID or find one through some other means and count on people not realizing it isn't their turk ID. I'd say if you ever get an email like the one above asking for private information like drivers license picture always see if the error they say exist actually exist and after that if it doesn't exist don't respond if it does exist find some means of contacting them other than the sent email to make sure they are actually the originator of the email.
As you can see, the body of the email is a non-personalized form letter. Nothing in it indicates the person who they actually intended to contact. Had I not checked the email headers, I would not have caught this discrepancy. I would have duly faxed in my ID and whammo, my personal information would be attached to two different worker IDs. I am thinking about contacting AMT and digging further regarding [Worker ID]. I am not as inclined to write this off as a simple mistake as you are.
Oh, I have. And every time I get a reply from them, there is a different [Worker ID] in the Reply-to header. They have never asked for anything but for me to fax a copy of my ID to 1-800-887-0540, which seems to be the right number for such things. I still haven’t faxed anything in, and my Payments account is still in working order. I do a transfer and withdrawal every day, no problems. Beats the hell out of me.
Amazon Payments told me in the very first email that my account was on hold when it wasn’t and never has been. :shrug: Perhaps someone is trying to use my email address to verify their own account and hitting a brick wall.
Hi Khalinov, Thats a genuine email from Amazon, but its not directly from mturk, our payment accounts are directly linked with Amazon.com - the same type of account which Amazon uses to pay its seller on the ecommerce site. Please do Google about this issue, there are many forums discussing about it, and also there is a reddit post about it. (Have PM'd you a few) Even, I had received similar email in the past and like others initially was suspicious about it, but after a thorough research and being convinced that its from Amazon, I sent them the requested documents. I know you for a long time through this forum, and my friendly advice would be to do further research on this, and then fax them the documents requested. There are people whose accounts got suspended because they ignored this email. Thanks
Thanks for the time and effort you spent digging these threads up for me. I do understand the difference between my Amazon Payments account and my Amazon Mechanical Turk account and that they are two separate accounts. I looked at your links, and they seem to pertain to newbs who are trying to get set up for the first time. I have been on AMT and AP since 2008 and file US tax returns every year, as is appropriate for an American citizen with reportable income. Still, if needs be I can humor them and fax in a copy of my DL. FWIW, here are the four [Worker IDs] that have shown up so far in these weird Reply-To headers: A3EU5GO5US3MUH AVNT1C8QRCZXZ (yes, 13 characters) A2AG4D6QKPR2NL A2PMDS6HGHGV8X
WORRY ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wa told twice that my account was in good standing..NOW IT IS SUSPENDED for christ sake what a bunch of idiots
FWIW, we got it all worked out. I faxed them a sheet with my DL, Worker ID and top of my bank statement on it and they pronounced their blessing. And yes, when they replied it had yet another strange ID in the Reply-To header: A2BAQZSZ8J1V53 And to reiterate, my Amazon Payments account was never suspended, despite multiple claims by Amazon Payments that it was “on hold.” I made daily transfers and withdrawals the entire time this back-and-forth was going on.
