We all know those dreaded streaming app screens that pop up on our smart TVs just when we get comfortable on the couch, ready to watch that new latest release.
Perhaps it’s an activation screen for that newly downloaded streaming app. Or maybe it’s that dastardly prompt that lets you know the app has internet connection issues. All of us can agree those screens are annoying. However, they’re also turning out to be quite lucrative for scammers.
The Amazon TV prompt that appeared for the victim in our report.
Credit: Mashable
Mashable spoke to a victim of this scheme who was recently scammed out of $700. The individual was simply trying to get Amazon Prime Video service to load on their smart TV when they received a prompt about an “Internet Connectivity Problem.”
If you experience a message like this on your smart TV and simply restarting your modem doesn’t fix the issue, Amazon’s on-screen prompt recommends going to www.amazon.com/videohelp for additional troubleshooting tips. If the user inputs that URL directly into their web browser, they are forwarded to an official Amazon support page.
However, not all users do that. Many people input URLs as a search query in Google, which gives scammers their opening. The only thing bad actors need to do is create a fake web page that looks convincingly like Amazon and its Prime Video service, optimize them so these fraudulent pages appear high in search engine results pages. Now they’re…
