SALT LAKE CITY — An unexpected payment from Amazon would normally be reason to be wary. But for millions of people, Amazon’s unexpected money might actually be real.
It’s been almost exactly a year since the FTC announced that Amazon agreed to pay billions of dollars to settle allegations that it signed people up for Prime without their permission and then made it too difficult to cancel.
Today, a federal judge clarified who gets paid, and millions more Prime customers are eligible.
If you are one of them, you don’t need to do anything.
Under the revised order, beginning October 1, 2026, Amazon will automatically begin sending a series of additional refunds via Venmo, PayPal, or mailed checks.
As the checkout window opens, consumer advocates say Amazon customers need to be vigilant. Whenever there is big news involving big money and a big company, you can be sure that scammers will try to take advantage of it.
A scammer may send you an email asking you to click on a link to receive your refund, when in reality they are trying to trick you into downloading malware. Or, they may try to trick you into giving them access to your bank account.
This is one of the rare situations where the surprise arrival of money can actually be legitimate.
But if someone contacts you and asks you to do something to “free up” that money, that’s when your scam radar should go off.
The FTC warns that the agency “does not contact people about refunds” and states that “if you get a call from someone claiming to be with the FTC, it’s a scam.”
Amazon agreed last year to pay $2.5 billion to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it “enrolled millions of consumers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and knowingly made it difficult for consumers to cancel.” Since then, Amazon has paid approximately $845 million, according to the FTC.
More information about who is eligible for a refund is available on the FTC website.
The key takeaways from this article were generated with the help of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article itself is solely written by humans.
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