Generally, I’m the person telling you that the email you got about claiming your free stuff is nothing but a scam. But for once, I’m going to tell you to go for it. But only if you got this particular email. I opened my inbox to see a message from Amazon. Since I’m continually warning you about Amazon scams, I thought I’d give you the heads-up about this legitimate message.
Here’s the content of the message. It pertains to a lawsuit that I’ve told you about before. Apple agreed to a settlement after it was accused of conspiring with publishers to keep their prices higher in the Kindle store if they wanted to do business with Apple. Users who made Kindle book purchases between April of 2010 and May of 2012 from certain publishers were eligible to receive credit in the Kindle store towards more book purchases. Many of you may have already redeemed credits that were paid by the publishers involved in the settlement. This latest round is funded by Apple’s part of the settlement.
One sign that this email is legit, is that it doesn’t require immediate attention or that you click on any particular link in the email. You can just go to your Amazon account or your Kindle to make the purchase. To be sure, you can skip the links in the email and just go to Amazon to check. Note that it specifies that you won’t be asked for your information and that it says you still have some time to use. That’s not 100% proof that an email is real, but it’s a good sign.
When I went to Amazon and made my Kindle book purchase, the checkout looked just like always. For a minute there, I wasn’t even sure my credit applied, but it did. It was credited as a gift card on my purchase.
You can go to the gift card area of your Amazon account to see if you have a balance by clicking here.
Remember, only those who purchased books from certain publishers during the timeframe I mentioned are entitled to the settlement. If you have money coming, you’ll likely be notified, assuming your email address is up-to-date with Amazon.
If any of you happen to have this credit and are looking for a good mystery to read, give one of mine a try. Just click here.