As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity experts are warning Canadians to be wary of an influx of scammers posing as the retail giant. technology.
In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Deal Days, which took place Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 1,000 new Amazon-related web domains were registered, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that provides cybersecurity.
The company judged 88% of these domains to be malicious or suspicious, suggesting they may have been created by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers.
One in 54 newly created domains linked to Amazon included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”
“They are almost indistinguishable from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.
“With all these registered domains that look so similar, a lot of people get it wrong. And that’s the whole goal here. »
Falzon said Check Point Research sees an increase in scam attempts around major online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime deal days.
Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to come from a trusted source and attempt to steal sensitive information.
In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon typically offer “incredible” deals that appear to be associated with Prime deals days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.
The cybersecurity company says it identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.
Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and asking for payment information.
“It’s like Christmas for them,” Mr. Falzon said.
“People expect there to be significant savings with Prime deal days, so they’re not surprised to see something of significant value. In general, the old adage applies: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. »
Scammers are successful
He added that these scams are more successful than one might think.
As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center said $284 million had been lost to fraud since the start of the year, affecting 15,941 victims.
But Falzon points out that many incidents go unreported because some targeted Canadians don’t know how or where to report a scam, or may choose not to do so out of embarrassment.
Check Point recommends that Amazon customers take precautions when shopping on Prime Deal Days, including carefully checking URLs, creating secure passwords for their accounts, and avoiding sharing information personal information such as their date of birth or social insurance number.