Amazon Prime Day is here now, but alongside all the great deals to be had, shoppers have been warned to be careful when browsing.
A study from Check Point Research (CRP) has found scammers are impersonating Amazon or affiliates to trick online shoppers – and in the last 30 days alone, over 1,000 new Amazon related domains have been registered, 88% of which were identified as suspicious.
Many of these domains are ‘parked’ or not in use, but could be activated in the coming days, or used in phishing attacks. The scams come in a number of forms, but commonly advise customers to update their payment methods to ‘access’ prime benefits – and of course then steal their sensitive information.
Prime targets
As Amazon Prime Day grows in popularity, such scams have become sadly more common – and because the event specifically encourages customers to order within a specific time frame to access deals and benefits, fraudsters pressure victims into acting fast with urgent calls to action.
The deception goes beyond just emails too, with some criminals going as far as to call customers to ‘inform’ them that their memberships are missing information or a payment method – data that they will collect and exploit.
Every year around Prime Day, bogus sites pop-up at an accelerated rate looking to take advantage of shoppers looking for discounts.
To stay safe this year, CPR recommends checking URLs and email addresses carefully, common misspellings are often used to trick users by impersonating a trusted site. Also, look for HTTPS website URLs, which indicate a more secure connection.
We know the deals on Prime Day can be pretty juicy, but be wary of any that seem unrealistic – trust your instincts on sales, an iPhone for $10 is probably less than legit. Ideally, shoppers should stick to the verified Amazon website or App, and never click on links to third parties.
