The checker reads one suspicious email. Batmail reads your whole inbox overnight.
Paste the Costco email into the checker and it reads it for the signs below.
The checker reads the sender address, the wording, any link address you paste with the email and what the email asks you to do. It gives a verdict, a risk score from 0 to 100, the exact wording behind each red flag and what to do next. It is free and needs no signup.
Batmail phishing email checker
A fake Costco email says your membership payment failed, then asks for the card.
Costco’s page of currently known scams describes prominent fraudulent emails, texts and posts that are circulating, and says the offers are not from Costco Wholesale. It tells you not to visit any links in messages like these, and not to give the sender any personal information. The email below is invented, and each number is one of the signs.
Example
Dear member,
Your Costco membership payment failed, and your membership will be suspended.
Update your card number, expiry date and security code to keep your membership.
You have 24 hours before your account is closed.
The button says costco.com/membership
The sender's address is not one of Costco's five.
Costco lists five sender addresses, such as @orders.costco.com for shipping and membershipannualrenewal@invoice.costco.com for membership invoices. This address is on none of them.
A claim that the membership payment failed.
Costco's list of known scams includes a "CRITICAL: COSTCO MEMBERSHIP PAYMENT FAILED" message and fraudulent "Subscription Renewal Issue" emails.
A request for card details.
Costco says its unsolicited electronic communications do not ask for your personal information, such as a username, password, credit card information, birth date or Social Security number.
A button that says costco.com and goes somewhere else.
Costco lists a link that shows a non-Costco URL when you hover over it as a warning sign, and says to enter websites in your browser instead of clicking links.
From Costco Customer Service: Currently Known Scams, read 7 November 2026.
From Costco Customer Service: Preventing Fraud, read 7 November 2026.
Read the sender's address from the right, because the last two parts say who owns it.
Anyone can put “Costco” in front of an address. The part to read is the domain, after the @ in a sender or after the https:// in a link. Read it from the right: the last two parts name the owner, and everything in front of them is only a label the owner chose. Costco’s real addresses are all labels in front of costco.com, such as orders.costco.com, and costco.com is the owner.
Read the domain from the right
orders.costco.com
From CostcoOwned by costco.com. Costco says its shipping and delivery emails are sent from the @orders.costco.com domain.
invoice.costco.com
From CostcoOwned by costco.com. Costco says its membership invoices are sent from this domain.
costco.com.membership-update.example
Not from CostcoOwned by membership-update.example. costco.com is only a label in front of it.
costco-membership-billing.example
Not from CostcoOwned by costco-membership-billing.example. The name has Costco in it, but the owner is someone else.
From Costco Customer Service: Why am I receiving emails from Costco?, read 7 November 2026.
Costco lists five valid email addresses, and each one has one job.
Costco links to a page it calls its list of valid Costco Wholesale domains. An email about your membership that does not come from one of these is not one Costco says it sends. Costco also says these addresses are not monitored, so a reply goes nowhere, and to use its Contact Us page for help.
| Address | What Costco says it sends |
|---|---|
@trx.costco.com | What Costco says it sendsTransactional emails. |
@digital.costco.com | What Costco says it sendsMarketing emails. |
@orders.costco.com | What Costco says it sendsShipping and delivery emails. |
costco@digitalshopcard.costco.com | What Costco says it sendsDigital Costco Shop Cards. |
membershipannualrenewal@invoice.costco.com | What Costco says it sendsMembership invoices. |
From Costco Customer Service: Why am I receiving emails from Costco?, read 7 November 2026.
To check a Costco payment email, type the website yourself and use Costco's own contact page.
Costco says caller ID can be faked, and that a link can show a non-Costco address when you hover over it. Its answer is the same each time: check it yourself, and do not rely on anything inside the message.
How to check a message that says it is from Costco
- Click nothing
No links, no attachments.
Costco says this for an order confirmation you don't recognize.
- Type the address
costco.com, in your browser.
Costco says to enter websites using your browser and not by clicking on provided links.
- Use Contact Us
Costco's own contact page.
Costco says to use legitimate phone numbers to verify a request, and its Contact Us options to report suspicious emails.
From Costco Customer Service: Preventing Fraud, read 7 November 2026.
Five steps tell you whether a Costco email is real without clicking anything.
- Leave the button and every link alone. Costco says not to visit any links in messages like these, and not to give the sender any personal information.
- Read the sender’s address from the right and check it against the five in the table above. Costco says to be aware of typos and misspellings, and that hovering over a link may show a non-Costco address.
- Type
costco.cominto your browser to look at your membership, and use Costco’s Contact Us page for help. Costco says when in doubt, don’t respond. - Paste the email into the checker at the top of this page for a second read.
- Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, as Costco says, then delete it. Costco says to delete any questionable emails and texts. In Gmail you can also choose More next to Reply, then Report phishing.
Steps from Costco Customer Service: Preventing Fraud, read 7 November 2026.
Steps from Gmail Help: Avoid & report phishing emails, read 7 November 2026.
If you gave out information, Costco suggests telling the credit bureaus and watching your credit.
Costco says that if you already gave out information, you should consider notifying the consumer credit reporting agencies and signing up with a credit monitoring service. It says to report confirmed cases of identity theft to the FTC. For a link or file you opened, the FTC says to update your computer’s security software and run a scan.
What to do depends on what you did
You only read it.
Do not respond. Report it to the FTC and delete it.
You clicked a link or opened an attachment.
Update your computer's security software, run a scan and remove anything it identifies as a problem.
You gave your card details or other personal information.
Notify the consumer credit reporting agencies and consider a credit monitoring service, as Costco suggests. Follow the steps at IdentityTheft.gov for what you shared.
From Costco Customer Service: Preventing Fraud, read 7 November 2026.
From FTC Consumer Advice: What To Do if You Were Scammed, read 7 November 2026.
From FTC Consumer Advice: How To Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams, read 7 November 2026.
The same checks work on other store and bill emails.
A payment email can borrow the name of any store or carrier. The guide to fake Walmart emails covers a prize that asks for your details, and the guide to fake AT&T emails covers a bill with a zip file. The holiday scam emails guide puts the kinds side by side.
These are the questions people ask next.
Which email addresses does Costco really use?
Costco lists five: @trx.costco.com for transactional emails, @digital.costco.com for marketing, @orders.costco.com for shipping and delivery, costco@digitalshopcard.costco.com for digital Shop Cards, and membershipannualrenewal@invoice.costco.com for membership invoices. It says those addresses are not monitored.
Is a "membership payment failed" email from Costco real?
Costco's list of currently known scams includes a message titled "CRITICAL: COSTCO MEMBERSHIP PAYMENT FAILED" and fraudulent "Subscription Renewal Issue" emails. Costco says not to visit any links in messages like these, and not to give the sender any personal information.
Does Costco ask for my card or password by email?
Costco says unsolicited electronic communications from Costco do not ask for your personal information, such as a username, password, credit card information, birth date or Social Security number. It says never to provide personal information in response to an electronic communication.
Where do I report a fake Costco email, text or call?
Costco says to report scams and suspicious calls, emails and texts to the FTC, or to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center or your state attorney general. You can also use the Contact Us options on Costco's page to report suspicious emails or contacts.
Does Costco offer jobs or prizes by email or text?
Costco says it does not extend job offers by email, message app or text to people it has had no prior contact with, and does not ask prospective employees to pay a fee. Its list of known scams also covers fake surveys, rewards and giveaways, and says these offers are not from Costco Wholesale.
What should I do if I already gave out information?
Costco suggests notifying the consumer credit reporting agencies and signing up with a credit monitoring service, and reporting confirmed cases of identity theft to the FTC. IdentityTheft.gov lists the steps that match what you lost.
Every step on this page comes from these official pages.
Read on . Spot a step that has changed? Email support@batmail.ai and we will fix it.
- Costco Customer Service: Preventing Fraud
- Costco Customer Service: Currently Known Scams
- Costco Customer Service: Why am I receiving emails from Costco?
- FTC Consumer Advice: What To Do if You Were Scammed
- FTC Consumer Advice: How To Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams
- IdentityTheft.gov
- Gmail Help: Avoid & report phishing emails