Watch Out For These Amazon Prime Day Scams

We always warn our clients to watch out for phishing attempts, but email and text scams around major sales, such as Amazon Prime Day, are especially high!

PHISHING SCAMS

Keep an eye out for email and text phishing scams. Phishing is when an attacker sends you an email or text claiming to be from a reputable company or person to get you to click on a link that either directs you to a malicious website or asks you to provide your account details to verify your information or get you to log in. There has already been a notable surge in Amazon-related scams because of Prime Day. Be sure to check the “from” address on emails and look for any misspellings, such as “Amaz0n.com” or “Amozon.com,” etc.

Amazon isn’t the only retailer having a huge sale right now. Target, Walmart, and others have also announced sales to compete. If a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is, so be wary of any advertisements you receive. With your mouse, hover over images and links and see where it takes you. If the link seems like it will direct you to a site you aren’t expecting, don’t click on it. Instead, open an internet browser and type in the name of the company’s website address and look for the deal to make sure it’s not a scam.

Same goes for emails asking you to verify your account details or review order and shipping information. The message will usually say something like, “Click here to log in to your account” and the link will ask for your username, password, and/or other personal information. A bad actor could be using the information you type in to steal your credentials. Again, instead of clicking the link, go directly to the company’s website to log into your account or call the company directly.

When you want to check links received on your mobile device, the process is a little different than when you’re on a computer. Rather than hovering over the link, click and hold the link to either copy and paste it into a URL checker or see a preview of the site it will direct you to.

DON’T LET SCAMMERS WIN

Stay vigilant when checking your emails and text messages by following the directions above. If you are using your work computer or wifi network, clicking malicious links could cause a data breach or infect your whole organization. One of the best ways to help avoid these IT security risks is to make sure you are using web filtering software that will restrict users from accessing websites that are known to be malicious or contain undesirable content.

At Centre Technologies, we include web filtering as part of our managed IT services for all of our clients to help keep their organization protected. Read about our Secure Managed Services and contact us for more information.