Is this phishing?
I thought I was pretty good at recognizing fake emails, but this one has me stumped.
"Dear Seller,
You may be legally required to be VAT registered in the United Kingdom (UK) based on your Amazon activity.
Under UK VAT legislation, all online marketplaces must prevent non-UK businesses that are storing products in the UK, from offering products for sale after the marketplace becomes aware that the business is not meeting its UK VAT registration requirement.
We are required to verify that you are VAT registered in the UK. Please upload your UK VAT registration number to Seller Central within the next 55 days.
Upload your VAT numbers
If you have not provided your UK VAT number after this period we will be required to block your account. If you are blocked, you will not be able to sell on amazon.co.uk Marketplace, fulfill customer orders with UK FBA inventory or create new inbound shipments to the UK.
After you upload your VAT number, we will validate that it belongs to your business and your VAT registration name matches your Seller Central legal name. This process may take up to 10 working days.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for ensuring all businesses meet their VAT compliance requirements under UK VAT legislation. You can learn more about how the legislation might affect you by referencing HMRC guidance.
To learn more about VAT, please see our VAT resources page.
What happens after I upload my UK VAT Number to Seller Central?
After you upload your UK VAT number, we will validate that the VAT number belongs to your business. This process may take up to 10 days. If you upload your number with less than 10 days remaining to your deadline, your account may be temporarily blocked while validation completes
Sincerely,
Amazon Services Europe S.a.r.l.
*Amazon does not provide tax advice or compliance services and does not endorse the services of any tax adviser.
Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this e-mail, but contact seller support with any questions.
Amazon Services Europe S.a.r.l. 5 Rue Plaetis L-2338 Luxembourg, Registered in Luxembourg No. B-93815, Share Capital 37.500 EUR, Business License Number: 100416, Luxembourg VAT Reg. No. LU 19647148.
Copyright 2017 Amazon.com Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved."
The sender of this email is no-reply@amazon.com - this is the first thing that seems suspicious, as I’d expect it to come from a .co.uk address instead
There are three hyperlinks in this email. One is “Upload your VAT numbers”, the others are “seller support” and “Amazon.com” in the footer. They all point to go.amazonsellerservices.com domain, which seems legitimate (at least WHOIS has it registered for Amazon Technologies, Inc.)
At the top there is a gray box with “Fulfilment by Amazon” text. It’s an image, but mentioning FBA seems pretty random since we don’t use it and never have.
I sent the email to stop-spoofing@amazon, but I did not receive any reply, when I always used to get an automated “this email is probably fake” almost immediately.
Oh, and of course, we are a UK company (although not VAT registered), so the “non-UK businesses” part seems pretty fishy, too.
Of course, I don’t see anything in my seller central, where would this be displayed?
17 replies
Seller_Nprc5XWvdLYk9
but the email does not ask you to click on any links,
just to complete the required task within your amazon account,
I suspect it is genuine.
is your turnover close if not over the threshold for uk vat registration.
or might amazon think you are based overseas?
Seller_hC0hNVDuILaKO
They are not asking you to click on any links, or to do anything untoward re your account security, simply to upload your VAT number on seller central.
What looks suspicious about the email?
Seller_GFpCiihGWZIZs
Hello.I received this email too along with few of my friends, we are UK LTD holding stock only in UK amazon warehouse. It is very strange as our VAT threshold turnaround is well bellow requirement for registration
I am not sure if it’s generic email trying to catch non complying business or genuine.email directed to us to register for VAT
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
Looks legit to me as they are asking you to do this through your seller central, a phishing email would ask you to click on a link.
Seller_91sBzIAyFhZ4R
Hello,
Why do ltd companies located in United Kingdom also get such emails? What to do with it? Explained that one of you has an English company? Has anyone already explained it?
Seller_SiWnKdZGuxjwo
it is legitimate, if you store stock in the UK you have to register for VAT. it is the same for other eu countries, Amazon are simply covering their own backs so they dont have to pay VAT you should of paid and havent.
