Beware of scams related to Amazon Prime Days, which fall on July 12th and 13th this year. Cybercriminals will be using a variety of social engineering tactics to exploit shoppers. You may receive spoofed phishing messages, SMS text messages, and phone calls during/around this time. Scammers are seeking Amazon customer login credentials to make purchases. They may purchase virtual gift cards which can be used or sold quickly before the account compromise is even noticed. Once they are in possession of customer credentials, they may even change the account passwords, locking customers out of their own accounts. They may also seek to intercept scheduleddeliveries or infect devices with malware, via malicious links and attachments.
To avoid these types of scams:
- Don’t click on embedded links or open attachments in unexpected messages.
- Scan messages received to make sure the sender’s address, tone, spelling, and grammar are as you’d expect, and don’t be tricked by threats or a sense of urgency.
- Confirm that you’re not visiting spoofed web pages. URLs other than https://www.amazon.com/, using domains such as amazon.co or amazo.com indicate spoofing, and interaction with malicious websites may lead to stolen credentials, monetary and identity theft, as well as malware. Some spoofed websites are incredibly convincing and look identical to their legitimate counterparts. For this reason, it’s always best to visit sites using known/trusted URLs that you type into a browser’s address bar.
- Avoid clicking web pop-ups as clicking any element of pop-us may trigger adware or malware, such as ransomware.
- Beware of delivery attempt notifications for unexpected deliveries, and unexpected customer support calls and texts. Remember that both phone numbers and email addresses can be spoofed. A call or message may look like it’s from a legitimate source when it’s not. You can always visit a company website and access your account for messages or call Customer Service using the phone number on the company website to confirm.
- Notice when something sounds too good to be true, because it likely is.
Tips to keep in mind during Amazon Prime Days & beyond:
- Opt to use a credit card as opposed to a debit card. Credit cards usually offer more consumer protection than debit cards.
- Use secure, password-protected WiFi and avoid all transactions and personal account access when on public networks, if possible.
- Use a VPN (virtual private network) to protect your data in transit.
- Turn off WiFi & Bluetooth when not in use.
- Use MFA (multi-factor authentication) to further secure all eligible accounts.
and remember . . . - Use trusted URLs and phone numbers to shop, contact customer service, or check delivery status. It is safest to type URLs into the search bar as opposed to clicking embedded links in emails.
- When in doubt, confirm information received using trusted channels of communication.