Protecting Amazon Prime Day Shoppers From Online Fraud – Expert Advise

<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just as you’ll be hunting for great deals, cybercriminals will be hunting for victims this Amazon Prime Day. The most common tactic will be for scammers to impersonate Amazon in phishing emails, luring consumers with ‘too good to be true’ deals or prize offerings to encourage them into clicking malicious links or entering their details into fake websites. Tessian saw a 133% spike in suspicious emails related to Amazon Prime Day or Amazon Store on 13th October 2020 – the last Amazon Prime Day – compared to the daily average for the month of October.  </p>
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<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another common technique is to impersonate logistics or delivery companies in text message scams, asking consumers to click a link to confirm delivery details, track orders or reroute packages. If you’ve just bought something in the sales, it wouldn’t seem unusual to receive a message like this. But these scams are designed to harvest financial information or account credentials which can be used to access other online accounts. </p>
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<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, this Amazon Prime Day, think before you click and verify the legitimacy of every message before complying with any request. </p>
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<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also beware of scams after the sales day. On the 15th October 2020, the day after the Prime Day sales last year, Tessian saw a 160% increase in the number of suspicious emails related to ‘Amazon’ and ‘Amazon Prime Day’ compared to the daily average counted throughout October 2020. The subject lines of these suspicious emails related to order confirmations, invoices, package delivery updates, and messages supposedly coming from Amazon ‘Customer Support’. </p>
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<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are our tips to avoid falling for a scam on Amazon Prime Day 2021: </p>
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<li>Be wary of emails that offer special deals or prizes associated with Prime Day – especially if they can only be accessed by clicking on a link or entering your personal or financial details. The general rule is to not click the links.</li>
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<li>Inspect the email address, not just the sender’s display name. Scammers take advantage of the fact that, on mobile, emails only show a display name which makes it easier for a bad actor to impersonate Amazon and send a message from an unknown email address.</li>
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<li>Be wary of SMS scams too. Throughout the pandemic, hackers have posed as logistics firms, asking consumers to verify their details, reschedule ‘attempted deliveries’ or pay outstanding delivery fees. Inspect the sender\’s phone number – unknown numbers or 11-digit long numbers starting with a local area code are often associated with scam texts. Again, do not click the links until you’ve confirmed whether it’s legitimate by contacting the company directly. </li>
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<li>Check for spelling or grammar mistakes. Large companies will rarely make these errors.</li>
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<li>Look on social media to see whether other consumers, or the company itself, has reported similar scams. </li>
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<li>And remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is so don’t click the links!</li>
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