Amazon Prime Day 2020 is back. Discounts attract millions of shoppers, but also hundreds of cybercriminals. Cybersecurity firm Check Point recommends taking into account a number of considerations before you go shopping.
Amazon Prime Day is one of the most important days of the year for the e-commerce company. In 2019, the portal sold more than 175 million products and invoiced more than $2 billion. Its new edition will be held on October 13 and 14 and will attract millions of users from all over the world in search of offers on lifestyle, electronics or culture products.
Fleshy days for buyers, sellers and multinationals, but also for hackers. Days like this involving a large volume of network traffic often attract many cyber criminals looking to get the money from shopping. More than that, according to the study of the cybersecurity company Check Point, in the last month the number of domains registered with the words Amazon or Prime has increased by 20%.
These fake websites have an interface same as Amazon’s and are used to steal buyer’s bank details or infect the computer with a virus. Pages they reach through fake offers or text messages and e-mails on which a brand is impersonated.
“It is crucial to be aware that cybercriminals are also preparing for these days, so clicking on the wrong link can put our personal information at risk and even lead to money losses,” warns Omer Dembinsky, director of data intelligence at Check Point.
For this reason, cybersecurity specialists launch a series of tips to be able to make the appropriate purchases without any danger. First, to avoid these fake pages recommend looking at the spelling of the domain. For example, if instead of putting Amazon, it appears to Amaz0n. Also if the domain is .co and not .com. In addition, it is important to observe whether the site complies with the security protocol. To do this, ensure you are following the URL that starts with https.
Check Point warns that a seller will never ask for data such as social security number or birthday. Nor are bids exceeding the terms of logic reliable. “If they offer you an 80% discount on the latest smartphone model, and it’s also a personalized offer with very limited time, then it’s not a bargain, it’s a hoax”.
Finally, they suggest using credit cards for online purchases and not making them connected to a public Wi-Fi network. These are not protected and could allow a hacker to steal personal data of any user.
