Protect Your Amazon Account In The UK

With stories like this one http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cyber-crooks-hack-amazon-accounts-8528512 it’s worth noting that it is possible to turn on two step verification on your Amazon account in the UK, even if it isn’t officially offered yet. For those that don’t know two step verification means that you need your password and a code sent to you by Amazon in order to login to your account. Otherwise known as something you know and something you have.

Before I start let me give the usual disclaimer that these steps are offered for information purposes only. You follow them at your own risk and I cannot be held responsible for anything that happens to your account or your ability to access it.

Now this is what I did:

1. Logout of Amazon.co.uk
2. Login to Amazon.com using your same username and password.
3. Click “Your Account” in the menu under your name
4. Click “Change Account Settings”
5. Click “Advanced Security Settings” then “Get Started”
6. Follow the steps to setup Two Step Verification during which you will choose to use either an authenticator app to generate your own code or have Amazon text you one.

Once done logout of Amazon.com and back into Amazon.co.uk. After you enter your password you should be presented with a request for a generated code.

I highly recommend everyone switches this on. It’s worth noting that two step verification is available on many services now such as iTunes, Outlook.com and Gmail (usually called Two Factor Authentication).