Brand impostor scams are proliferating and one of its victims is Amazon.
In other words, experts say consumers should beware if a message alerts them that there is an issue with their Amazon Prime account, like if their membership has been paused due to a payment issue for instance.
Amazon Prime scams are similar to impostor call center scams that have been plaguing consumers in the U.S. for a decade, Michael Bordash, senior vice president of research and development at communications technology company Syniverse, told FOX Business.
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Of late, criminals are attacking victims across all channels and they are using a combination of AI-driven, multi-lingual, content creation and brute-force human effort to do it, according to Bordash.
They essentially blast consumers with a rash of calls, texts, and email. They are also setting up impostor brand call centers to emulate major U.S. companies like Amazon, Bank of America, and even federal agencies like the FTC and IRS, according to Bordash.
Here's some examples of messages that Syniverse has detected and blocked:
"Amazon: Due to a payment issue, your Prime membership has been paused; Please recheck the details on file. <REDACTED URL>"
"Amazon: Your account is abnormal <REDACTED URL) (Please reply 1 to obtain a secure link and open the link to operate)"
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How does this happen:
The messages are intended to create a sense of urgency and try to direct a victim to a specific website or to call a specific number.
If the victim falls for it, the criminal can either collect personal information to sell to another criminal, use the information to take over the Amazon account or purchase gift cards which are then sold for cash on various public and dark sites, according to Bordash.
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Shawn Moorhead, vice president at Lastwall, which strengthens the cybersecurity posture of defense and critical infrastructure partners, told FOX Business that customers should verify the senders' email address to ensure it’s legitimate and to avoid clicking on links and attachments.
Before clicking links, Moorhead said it's important to hover over them to see the actual URL.
FOX Business reached out to Amazon for comment.
