Amazon scam prevention is flagging new tactics aimed at separating unsuspecting consumers from their money. Abigail Bishop, head of scam prevention at Amazon, tells PYMNTS the emergence of false text messages and fake order confirmations are just a few of the trending traps that are on the rise this year.
“Any communication, whether text messages or email or phone call, that you’re feeling this sense of false urgency,” Bishop told PYMNTS, “You need to stop and think about it,” she said, noting that in the case of Amazon customers’ message center and order history are fool proof places to verify what you’ve bought.
It’s not just text and email scams that are on the rise and evolving, as more users are reportedly getting tripped up on the telephone too, a tactic she said carries its own unique vulnerabilities for some consumers.
“The tricky part is that often they will give you a phone number to call that feels really legitimate and when you call them, you’re relieved because you’re actually talking to a real person,” Bishop said. “The trick is, that this is actually a scammer, and they are actually part of a criminal network,” she said, while reminding consumers to never divulge card or personal information.
She also warned that postcards with QR codes that direct consumers to a fraudulent site are also new and on the rise year.
Array of Targets
To be sure, as Bishop said, scammers have gotten “very, very clever” and are also very…
