Amazon Prime Day scams are coming — how to protect yourself

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Amazon Prime Twenty-four hours is virtually upon united states of america, and crooks and cybercriminals are getting set up to rip you off.

Israeli security firm Check Signal and Silicon Valley company Bolster, which spots imitation websites, both have seen major upticks in domain registrations that relate to "Amazon," "Prime number" or both.

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"Brand no mistake: In the aforementioned way you will exist hunting for bargains, hackers will be phishing for victims on Amazon Prime Day," reported Check Point in a web log post today (Oct. nine).

The crooks lure yous in with phishing emails, instant messages or texts that promise deals that are too good to exist true, or hope yous misspell "Amazon" or the names of other popular retailers who will also be having sales.

Check Point said it saw "a 21% increase in domains registered containing the word 'Amazon' compared to the previous calendar month" in the past thirty days. "The number of domains registered containing the words 'Amazon' and 'Prime' has doubled inside the last xxx days, with twenty% of those domains existence malicious."

Beware of fake Amazon sites

Bolster reported a similar ramp-upwards in fake Amazon sites beginning in August, and even plant and analyzed ii bogus websites.

I, called AmazonCustomerSupport.net (no longer live), copied Amazon'due south graphics and branding and offered refunds on cancelled Amazon orders. Merely, every bit Bolster's Young-Sae Song explained in a blog mail yesterday (October. 8), there were several tip-offs that this was not real.

"The form requests bank or credit card information," Song wrote. "Amazon always offers refunds to original form of payment or souvenir cards."

The fake site also prominently featured a phone number you lot could telephone call for quick assistance, which many frequent Amazon shoppers might see as unusually helpful.

"Amazon does not encourage client service by phone, and [it] takes a great effort to find phone back up on the existent Amazon site," Song dryly noted.

Surprisingly, the site doesn't inquire yous for your Amazon username or password. It might exist that the crooks behind it are making enough money from stealing your credit cards and don't need to hijack your Amazon account.

The $1 iPhone 11 Pro scam

The other site Bolster institute is however upwards, and it'south a variant on the "iPhone giveaway" scam that'due south been texted to many Americans in the past several months.

The site claims to be part of an "Amazon loyalty programme" and tells you that you've been given a run a risk to win an iPhone 11 Pro. At that place'due south even a list of simulated positive testimonials from people who claim to have received their free iPhones.

You but have to respond a quick but pointless survey (sample question: "Are you male person or female?") and so play a game in which yous are always the winner.

"You have it! You won an iPhone 11 Pro!" the page says afterwards you play the game. And then it tells you "Click on 'OK' to visit our sponsors page" and "Enter your accost and pay $1 aircraft to get your iPhone 11 Pro."

Yous're taken to a different site that asks y'all for your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, then a 2d folio where y'all, yup, fill out your credit card data to make that $i "shipping fee."

"Despite the glowing reviews, the $999 phone will never arrive, and the shopper brainstorm to run across strange charges on the credit card number provided," Eternalize's Song writes.

How to avoid being fooled by Prime Day scams

Both firms have communication on how to avoid being fooled by Prime Day scams. Eternalize recommends just going directly to Amazon.com and other known retail websites to wait for deals, rather than clicking on links in emails.

It also advises looking for blurry images or logos, and urges you lot to become familiar with the Amazon "buy experience" and so that you'll be quicker to spot deviations from the regular procedure.

"For example, saved payment information should not be re-entered during the purchasing process," Eternalize'southward Vocal wrote. "If you are asked to reenter, the likelihood that the site is fraudulent is extremely high."

Bank check Point advises checking the URL for misspellings of "Amazon" or domain names ending in items other than ".com."

It also suggests using a credit menu instead of a debit card for purchases (debit cards have weaker fraud protection), to avoid using public Wi-Fi networks, to brand sure your Amazon password is strong and unique, to exist wary of offers that seem just too practiced, and to remember that no online retailer needs to know your engagement of nascence or your Social Security number.

For more online shopping communication, bank check out our guides to how to store safely on Blackness Friday and our tips for safety Cyber Monday shopping.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has likewise been a dishwasher, fry melt, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He'south been rooting effectually in the information-security space for more than xv years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random TV news spots and even moderated a panel discussion at the CEDIA dwelling house-technology conference. You can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.