The cost-of-living crisis has triggered an “explosion” of Amazon scams as criminals have cashed in on heightened money worries to send thousands of scam texts a day.
There has been a huge rise in fraudsters impersonating the online sales giant to steal thousands of pounds from victims, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute has warned.
Scammers use texts, emails and cold calls to contact customers and claim they are entitled to a refund or offer to help with an account or delivery fault. Once a victim clicks on a malicious link and enters their banking or personal details, the criminals steal huge sums or sell the data to other fraudsters.
Other Amazon scams use high pressure tactics to catch victims off guard by claiming an expensive order has been made using their account, suggesting they have been hacked. Trading Standards said these fake messages sometimes claimed a £700 iPhone had been bought using the victim’s account or £79.99 charged to their card to renew a subscription with Amazon.
The message instructs the victim to follow a link, “secure their account” and cancel an order, which in reality will steal their details.
Katherine Hart, of the Trading Standards, said: “People are much more nervous about the cost of living and it is likely that a call out of the blue alleging suspicious activity and additional charges are likely to worry most people.
“These criminals rely on our fears and anxiety and are always quick to exploit it. We need to be suspicious and be very wary about passing on details.”
Ms Hart said often fraudsters already had some personal details, perhaps from a previous scam such as a fake delivery text, which helped convince the victim their call was legitimate.
The rise in online shopping has fuelled a surge in delivery and parcel scams, which first spread when lockdowns forced people to shop from home. But the trend has continued as the cost of living crisis intensifies, with Trading Standards reporting a “huge rise” in the fraud. A million scam texts are now sent every week.
Reports of “smishing”, where criminals use text messages to target victims, surged by more than a third between the end of last year and the first three months of 2022, according to cybersecurity company Proofpoint.
Delivery and parcel fraud make up 57pc of all scam texts in the UK, much higher than the global share of 30pc.
Ms Hart added: “Because the likes of Amazon and Netflix are used by lots of different age groups, everyone is a target. My own teenagers have received phone calls purporting to be from Amazon Prime, which makes them just as vulnerable as anyone else.”
Amazon said: “Scammers that attempt to impersonate Amazon put our customers and our brand at risk. Although these scams take place outside our store, we will continue to invest in protecting customers and educating the public on scam avoidance.”
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