Kingston Police remind shoppers to be wary of Prime Day scams
Amazon Prime Day is approaching, and porch pirates aren’t the only potential thieves shoppers may come across this year. The annual 48-hour sale will take place July 12 and 13, 2022, and while shoppers “may use Prime Day for awesome deals, cybercriminals use Prime Day for awful scams,” Kingston Police said in a media release.
According to police, cybercriminals may take advantage of Prime Day in different ways, but there are some common scam tactics that they typically use. For example, police said that they may include the Amazon logo in their phishing emails to make their emails seem more legitimate. Their emails may also include links that send users to fake Amazon login pages.
“If you enter your Amazon login credentials on one of the fake pages, cybercriminals can use these credentials to change your Amazon account password and log you out of your account,” Kingston Police said. “Then, they can make purchases using your saved payment information.”
Police provided the following tips to keep an Amazon account secure:
- If you receive an email from Amazon about an upcoming delivery or an account update, don’t click any links in the email. Instead, log in to your Amazon account directly from your browser to check on the issue.
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on your Amazon account. MFA adds an additional layer of security by requiring you to present two or more verification factors to log in to your account.
- Cybercriminals often use scare tactics to trick you into clicking links without thinking. If you receive an email that urges you to take immediate action, stop and evaluate the message before you click any links.