Amazon is warning Prime customers of two varieties of scams ahead of the corporate’s pre-Black Friday promotion, which starts Friday, Nov. 17.
The corporate says it has shut down almost 50,000 phishing web sites this 12 months, and email attachment schemes “have doubled” within the second half of 2023, per Moneywatch.
“The bad thing is not opening the attachment,” Scott Knapp, Amazon’s director of worldwide buyer risk prevention, told CBS MoneyWatch. “It’s clicking on the link within the attachment, which works straight to their website, where they begin collecting all types of knowledge.”
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The communication can arrive as an email, text, or call, with the scammer posing as an Amazon customer support representative. These fake notifications warn of a suspended account without “taking motion,” normally by clicking a link, opening an attachment, and even asking on your login credentials.
A sample scam email. Credit: Amazon.
One other growing scam is once they ask customers to confirm an enormous purchase (that you simply have not made) after which steal your information in the method as you are attempting to sort it out, the corporate warns.
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“A giant red flag is once they start to ask for money or payment information over the phone or by email. That is something we might never do. We would never ask for that,” Knapp said, per CBS.
Amazon is urging customers to allow them to know of any fraud or scam attempts which can be received.