Support Center

Welcome to our Support Center

Here you can search through our frequently asked questions.

Please send an email message to Membership Services at [email protected] with your complete old mailing address and new address. Or you can contact us by phone at 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789) M-F, 9:00AM-8:00PM EST.

All donations to Amnesty are fully deductible for tax purposes. AIUSA is a nonprofit organization with 501 (c)(3) status. Learn More.

How to Avoid Email Scams

Email scams — also known as “phishing scams” or “spoofed emails” — are on the rise. As a general rule you should only give out your personal financial information when visiting a secure website. You should never send personal information such as a credit card number or your social security number via an email message.

Helpful Information:

Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information. Phishing scams typically include upsetting or exciting (but false) statements in their emails to get people to react immediately. These emails typically ask for information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc. Amnesty International USA will never ask you for your username and password or your social security number in an email message.

Phisher emails are typically NOT personalized. Emails from Amnesty International USA will typically include personalized information, including a salutation and specific information about your subscription at the bottom of the email message.

If you suspect a message might not be from Amnesty International, do not click on the links in an email. Instead, you can call us at any of the numbers found on our contact page: https://www.amnestyusa.org/contact/

Amnesty International will never ask you for personal financial information in an email message. You should only provide credit card information via our secure website or over the telephone. To make sure you are on a secure Web server, check the beginning of the Web address in your browsers address bar – it should be “https://” rather than just “http://”

If anything ever appears suspicious, you can call us at any of the numbers found on our contact page: https://www.amnestyusa.org/contact/

More suggestions:

Consider installing a Web browser tool bar to help protect you from known phishing fraud websites.

Ensure that you are using the latest version of your browser and that security patches have been applied. In particular, people who use the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser should immediately go to the Microsoft Security home page — http://www.microsoft.com/security/ — to download a special patch relating to certain phishing schemes.

Always report “phishing” or “spoofed” e-mails to the following groups:

– forward the email to [email protected]

– forward the email to the Federal Trade Commission at [email protected]

When forwarding these messages, always include the entire original email with its original header information intact

Notify the Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: http://www.ifccfbi.gov/

For more information, go to:

http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

More than four decades ago, the story of two Portuguese students sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for raising a toast to freedom horrified British lawyer Peter Benenson. He wrote to the British newspaper, The Observer, calling for an international campaign to bombard authorities around the world with protests about the “forgotten prisoners”. On 28 May 1961 the newspaper launched his year-long campaign, Appeal for Amnesty 1961, calling on people everywhere to protest against the imprisonment of men and women for their political or religious beliefs – “prisoners of conscience”.

Within a month, more than a thousand readers had sent letters of support, offers of practical help and details about many more prisoners of conscience. Within six months, a brief publicity effort was being developed into a permanent, international movement. Within a year the new organization had sent delegations to four countries to make representations on behalf of prisoners and had taken up 210 cases. Its members had organized national bodies in seven countries.

The principles of impartiality and independence were established from the start. The emphasis was on the international protection of the human rights of individuals. As Amnesty International grew, its focus expanded to take in not just prisoners of conscience, but other victims of human rights abuses – such as torture, “disappearances” and the death penalty. In 1977, the movement’s efforts were recognized through the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1978, it was honored with a United Nations Human Rights Award.

More about Amnesty International

Simply pay your annual membership dues ($25 general membership; $15 student/senior citizen). Or send payment to: Amnesty International, 311 W 43rd Street, 7th Floor New York, NY 10036. Or call us at 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-792-6637).

Please contact Member Services at [email protected] or by phone at: 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789) M-F, 9:00AM-8:00PM EST.
Thank you.

To change your credit card information on file, or generally to change any member information on file, please contact Member Services at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789) M-F, 9:00AM-8:00PM EST.

Click here to make a secure online renewal donation.

Before any formal statement or report is issued, its text is approved within the International Secretariat to ensure it is accurate, politically impartial and falls within Amnesty International’s mandate.

Amnesty International is often dealing with allegations rather than undisputed facts. It makes this plain and usually calls for an investigation of the allegations. If Amnesty International makes a mistake, it issues a correction.

Amnesty International’s research is recognized as reliable and is widely consulted by governments, intergovernmental organizations, journalists, scholars, other human rights organizations and campaigning groups.

Where Amnesty International is denied access to a country, research teams may have to rely on sources of information outside the country, including news media reports, refugees and diplomatic representatives abroad.

Thank you for your support. Please contact Member Services at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789) M-F, 9:00AM-8:00PM EST.

Contact Member Services. We check our records for duplicates, but variations in spelling or address may not always be detected. Please contact Member Services at [email protected] or by phone at 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789) M-F, 9:00AM-8:00PM EST.

We have a record of real achievement. We know this because the people we help tell us that our pressure has had an effect. Sometimes governments are persuaded to change their laws and practices. Sometimes our solidarity keeps hope alive. Hope is a precious weapon for prisoners battling to survive, relatives trying to obtain justice on behalf of their loved ones or human rights defenders working in dangerous and isolated circumstances.

Learn more about Amnesty International Success.

The number starting with one or several zeroes (eg. 0012345) on the top portion of all of our mailings is your membership ID. It allows access to Members Only page at our website.

Amnesty International is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It does not support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it necessarily support the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect.

To ensure its independence, it does not seek or accept money from governments or political parties for its work in documenting and campaigning against human rights abuses. Its funding depends on the contributions of its worldwide membership and fundraising activities. Amnesty International is a democratic, self governing movement. It answers only to its own worldwide membership.

All policy decisions are taken by elected bodies. Major policy decisions are taken by an International Council made up of representatives from all the countries where Amnesty International members are organized into groups and national sections. They elect an International Executive Committee of volunteers which carries out their decisions and appoints the movement’s Secretary General, who is also head of the International Secretariat, the professional heart of Amnesty International.