AMAZON members have been warned to be on high alert for scams boiling out of Prime Day hype.
Phishing emails, false web pages, and other ruses are all in play, cybersecurity experts have warned.
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Amazon Prime Day is a major opportunity for deals on name-brand technology and gadgets.
Meanwhile, scammers are not sitting idly while consumers explore chances for big savings.
Check Point, a cybersecurity firm that works in partnership with Amazon, flagged a sharp 37% boost in Amazon-related phishing emails.
Jeff Bezos and Amazon racked up more than $11billion in sales last Prime Day.
Check Point’s 2021 Prime Day analysis highlighted a phishing scam that relied on impersonating Amazon customer service.
“Our researchers found a phishing mail which seems like it was sent from “Customer Service”, but from looking on the email address it’s clearly understood that it’s phishing,” Check Point wrote.
The sender’s address was a jumble of characters rather than Amazon’s concise corporate email account.
“The attacker was trying to lure the victim to click on a malicious link.”
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Another scheme crafted a replica Amazon log-in page – scammers would steal the credentials of users who failed to notice the site was a phony.
To avoid falling victim to a scam this Prime Day, take extra caution when eyeing your URL and browser.
TechRadar reported that the cybersecurity team also found almost 2,000 new websites connected to Amazon and almost 10% are considered “risky”.
These websites could be employing what hackers call typo-squatting – buying a domain name that is a common misspelling of a larger site like Amazon.
Check Point also advises users to “look for the lock” – a lock icon will appear to the left of the URL bar for sites that have padded security.
“No lock is a major red flag,” they wrote.
These cybercrime techniques are common tricks, but Amazon Prime Day is a particularly hot season for scammers because of the number of interested buyers and volume of sales.
NBCNews reported that 88% of Americans intend to shop on Amazon during Prime Day and 47% plan to make their biggest purchase of the year on the e-commerce holiday.
