Recently there has been an increase in the number of scams related to Amazon Prime which is not surprising since there are approximately 220 million Amazon Prime members. Scammers attempt to lure people into providing their credit card information or Amazon user name and password to the scammer posing as an Amazon employee. Typically, these scams start with an email, text message or phone call either informing the targeted victim that their membership needs to be renewed.  In some instances the scammers indicate that the credit card tied to the account is no longer able to be used, threatening to suspend the Amazon Prime account unless a new credit card is provided.

TIPS

Some of these phishing emails and text messages, which in the past had poor grammar and spelling having been sent from scammers in a country where English is not their native language are now, through AI able to appear entirely legitimate.   Phone calls coming from a foreign country can be “spoofed” to appear as if the call is coming from Amazon and through AI voice cloning the scammer can appear to speak perfect English without a foreign accent.

Never click on a link in an email or text message or provide personal information unless you have confirmed that the email, phone call or text message is legitimate. The telephone number to call if you suspect Amazon related fraud is 866-216-1075 or you can call their real customer service number 888-280-4331   Never call the numbers that appears in phishing emails.

Also, because any of us can be scammed, it is a good idea to use dual factor authentication whenever possible to protect your various accounts so that even if someone actually had your password they would not be able to access your account.  In order to set up dual factor authentication for your Amazon account use this link. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3PWZPU52FKN7PW4

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