Amazon Prime Day is one of the biggest online shopping events of the year. Scammers know this, so they’re looking for ways to connect with you as you shop for deals.
An Amazon spokesperson told NBC6 that they take steps to protect customers from scams and that during shopping events like Prime Day, they tend to see a rise in impersonation scams, which involve a scammer pretending to be a trusted contact to ask for payment or sensitive information.
The Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida says phishing emails or text messages are one way scammers can try to do this.
“What they do is copy logos and copy a lot of the marketing materials that Amazon puts out and put them into an email,” said Cinthya Lavin, a spokesperson for the BBB of Southeast Florida. “They want to bait people and just really impersonate Amazon. So you have to be really careful with the emails you open.”
Lavin said you should double-check the address where an email is coming from, avoid clicking on any suspicious links it may contain, and always report potential phishing emails. She also said scammers tend to use popular products, things like electronics and hot household items, to try to entice you to click on fraudulent links.
To stay safe — not only on Prime Day but around any big online shopping period — be careful with any unsolicited texts or phone calls that claim you’ve won a prize or say there is a delivery issue. Instead of searching for a product online and then clicking on that link to make the purchase, your safest bet is to go directly to a company’s website or app and complete the transaction there.
Make sure you do your homework, especially if a deal sounds too good to be true.
“If something looks very, very unusually low, it may be that you’re getting this from a vendor that’s not reputable,” Lavin said. “That’s why it’s important to check the vendors, even if they’re on the Amazon platform. Just do a little bit of research and look at those reviews.”
Amazon shared the following tips to help you spot and protect yourself from scams:
- Verify purchases on Amazon. If you receive a message about the purchase of a product or service, do not respond to the message or click on any link in the message; instead, log into your Amazon account or use the Amazon mobile app and confirm that it is really in your purchase history before taking any action.
- Trust Amazon’s app and website. We will not ask for payment over the phone or email—only in our mobile app, on our website, or in one of our physical stores. We will not call and ask you to make a payment or bank transfer on another website.
- Be wary of false urgency. Scammers often try to create a sense of urgency to persuade you to do what they’re asking.
- Don’t be pressured into buying a gift card. We will never ask you to purchase a gift card, and no legitimate sale or transaction will require you to pay with gift cards. Learn more about common gift card scams on our help pages.
- Contact us. If you’re ever unsure, it’s safest to stop engaging with the potential scammer and contact us directly through the Amazon app or website. Do not call numbers sent over text or email or found in online search results. Remember Amazon will not ask you to download or install any software to connect with customer service nor will we request payment for any customer service support.
- Check what others are saying. See if anyone else has reported a similar situation. In the U.S., Amazon has partnered with the Better Business Bureau to provide consumers a searchable Scam Tracker that enables you to search suspicious communications reported by others by email, URL, phone number, and more.
If you believe you’ve been the victim of a scam, you should also report it to the Federal Trade Commission.