Beware of Phishing Scams during Amazon Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day is in full effect and so are hackers working on elaborate phishing scams targeting Amazon shoppers. 

Amazon announced that over one million items will be discounted on July 15 and 16, leaving bargain shoppers racing to buy. But while shoppers are busy searching for the best deals on this Prime Day, malicious actors are looking to scam. 

McAfee reported a popular phishing kit, 16Shop, recently shifted its attention to Amazon. 16Shop allows hackers to send out malicious emails disguised as legitimate emails from Amazon. The emails contain PDF attachments that include links that direct victims to a site that looks identical to that of Amazon's login page. The site is designed to collect information from victims who find themselves dupped by the phishing campaign. 

If your email address and password are entered, the information is sent to the hackers via Telegram message, leaving your account vulnerable to all kinds of malicious activity. With your Amazon account, hackers have access to full names, addresses, birth dates, credit card information, and in some cases, your Social Security number. This kind of information is all a hacker needs to commit a serious case of identity fraud or charge your credit card without permission.

McAfee also found evidence that the campaign has been promoted on social media, which may yield them a higher success rate. 

In addition to 16Shop, shoppers should also be wary of clicking on malicious links from unknown senders, and avoid clicking on any emails promising gift cards or pretending to need confirmation of an order. 

While shoppers should remain vigilant throughout Prime Day, it's important that shoppers also be cautious outside of the big shopping holiday to avoid falling victim to a phishing scam. 

Implementing a layered security approach is really the only way to protect against today's modern malware and phishing attacks. We recommend starting by implementing a real-time File Integrity Monitoring solution combined with closed-loop intelligent change control to secure systems and protect against even the most sophisticated phishing campaigns.