Update, June 20, 2025: This story, originally published on June 19, has been updated to include more advice from Amazon, including the best contact methods if you are concerned someone might be trying to access your Prime account, as well as details of an anti-scam web browser you might like to try when shopping online.
If there’s one truism above all others when it comes to cybercriminal hackers, it has to be that they follow the money and the crowd. That is why we see so many attacks that target the likes of Gmail accounts, the Microsoft Windows operating system and, most recently, Facebook passwords. Amazon, as you might expect given its status in the world of online retail, is not immune to this attention. With the retail giant announcing that this year’s Prime Day sales will span four days in July, hackers will already be making their nefarious plans. The badness is that last year, Prime Day attacks increased by 80% over the year before. The good news is that Amazon is ready. Here’s what you need to know.
Amazon Confirms That Prime Day Scams Increased By 80% In 2024
You couldn’t make this up. As I was writing this very article, I received a call from a scammer impersonating Amazon, asking if I had ordered an iPhone 13. Yes, seriously. Precisely the kind of threat that Amazon is warning about, at precisely the moment that I write about hackers making their plans for this year. Obviously, I didn’t fall for it, and neither will you if you take the advice from Amazon that follows shortly.
As Amazon has now confirmed that Prime Day 2025 will take place July 8 through July 11, you can expect to be on the end of such calls, text messages and emails yourself. An Amazon spokesperson told me that “as deals drop, consumers may also drop their guards, making them more susceptible to scams.” And Amazon has the numbers to make the hairs on your back stand up to support this: “In the weeks surrounding Prime Day in 2024,” the spokesperson said, “Amazon customers reported an 80% increase in all impersonation scams that claimed there was an issue with their account.”
Unsurprisingly, as in my case, the top threat tactics included claiming to be from Amazon support and warning that there was a problem with your order, account, or payment. “Impersonation scams via phone calls,” Amazon said, “more than doubled during Prime Day” last year.
Amazon Advice For Customers To Prevent Account Scam Attacks
Amazon has shared the following advice for shoppers, both before and during the Prime Day 2025 sales, on how to stay safe from brand impersonation hackers:
- Never share your Amazon credentials with any third-party tools, websites or, well, anyone. They don’t need to know. Only use tools and sites that support the secure Login With Amazon authentication process.
- Verify purchases directly on Amazon, do not respond to a message, click on a link or give account information over the phone.
- Never place an order by email with a seller. Amazon will only ever ask for payment in its app or on the website, and never by email or phone.
- Do not be fooled by scammers creating a sense of false urgency. Count to ten and apply the advice at the top of the list.
- Amazon will never ask you to purchase a gift card.
- Keep your operating system and the Amazon app updated to the latest version to ensure the best security protections are in place.
- Ensure your Amazon account is protected by two-step verification, also known as two-factor authentication or 2FA
You might also want to look at the browser that you use to access Amazon, especially as the privacy-centric DuckDuckGo has just updated its offering specifically with anti-scam protections that include online shopping threats.
Available and active as soon as you fire up the web browser, DuckDuckGo has a built-in Scam Blocker function that protects against phishing sites and malware. Of particular interest, and new in this latest update, is that it now also guards against “sham e-commerce sites, fake cryptocurrency exchanges, scareware that falsely claims your device has a virus, and other sites known to advertise fake products or services,” according to Peter Dolanjski from DuckDuckGo.
Find out more about how Amazon protects customers from scams and the best way to report an incident here.
