Here are scams to watch out for during Amazon Prime Day
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Everyone is excited for this year’s Amazon Prime Day, including scammers.
Thieves will use the next two days to unleash scams during the event to steal credit card information and personal information.
These craft crooks have also set up Amazon-related domains to trick people into handing over money, assuming they’re buying goods from the official site β researchers have seen at least 1,500 fake sites pop up around Prime Day.
Keep reading to avoid their plans and order those Prime Day deals without any kind of identity fraud.
Thieves will use the next two days to unleash scams during the event to steal credit card information and personal information
Top time for scammers
Cybersecurity provider Check Point gathered eye-watering research surrounding Amazon Prime Day and its associated scams.
β The number of Amazon Prime phishing campaigns was 16 times higher in June than in May.
β Overall, Amazon-related phishing activity increased by eight percent. It is clear that the bad guys are hard at work preparing for match day.
β Within that window, about 1,500 new web domains associated with the word “Amazon” were discovered. A whopping 92 percent of these websites turned out to be suspicious or downright malicious.
β One in 68 new domains related to ‘Amazon’ was explicitly associated with Prime, and 93 percent of those websites were considered very scant.
A fake email notifies the recipient of a fake billing issue. There is also a malicious link to update payment information
In this email, the phishing email states that the recipient’s Amazon account has been locked. It also contains a fake link to update their profile and a form to update credit card information.
It starts with an email (or SMS)
Phishing attacks come in all shapes and sizes.
They usually come in the form of bogus emails or bogus websites with the end goal of stealing your personal information or financial credentials.
Phishing emails are made to look like they were sent by someone you know or a reputable organization (such as Amazon).
The phishing attacks are carried out through links, attachments or forms in the emails.
Cybercriminals can steal personal information once someone clicks on a malicious link or opens an attachment.
You can usually spot phishing emails if there are a lot of spelling errors or odd-looking fonts, logos, and layouts.
However, scammers have learned from their mistakes and made emails look more authentic. You have to look deeper to catch them.
Credentials and credit card theft
Fake emails inform the recipient of a fake billing issue and ask them to re-enter their account information.
There is also a malicious link to update payment information.
Similar fraudulent emails are used to obtain credit card information.
The email might say that your credit card needs to be updated and contains a link that takes you to the thieves’ bogus website.
Spend safely
Here are some handy tips for smart shopping on Prime Day:
β Look for Amazon.com misspellings or sites using a slightly different domain (eg, “Amazon.co”).
β Create a new strong password for your Amazon account before July 11.
β Look for the lock symbol next to the web address, especially on payment pages. This indicates that the site has SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption installed.
β Stay away from ‘too good to be true’ bargains. While many Prime Day deals are great, 80% off a new Apple computer is probablyβ¦ inauthentic.
β Pay with credit cards. Debit cards are linked to your bank account and getting your money back is more complicated.
Not using your Prime account?
It’s not exactly easy to cancel your account. Here’s how to take a break after Prime Day.
Here’s an example of a fraudulent website made to look exactly like an Amazon checkout page
To cancel Prime through the Amazon app:
β Open the Amazon app. Click on the three lines in the bottom right corner to go up
β the quick menu.
β Click the Prime button in the top left corner, then click the blue Prime icon.
β Click the Prime logo in the top left corner, then click Manage my membership.
β From the drop-down menu options, click Manage Membership.
β Click End Membership.
β Scroll through the message telling you how many days your membership is left.
β Click Continue to cancel.
β On the next page, click Finish On [DATE] yellow button to complete the process.
To cancel Prime from your computer:
β On the Amazon home page, hover over the Account and Lists tab in the top right corner.
β Click Prime Membership in the drop-down menu to go to your personal
β membership page. Then select Manage Membership on the right.
β Select End Membership from the drop-down menu.
β On the next page, see how many days are left in your billing cycle. Then click the yellow Continue button to cancel.
β On the next page, click Finish On [DATE] yellow button to complete the process.