Amazon Contest Scam

It’s all too easy to create an email that looks like it comes from a major company but is really a fake.

Who Is It Targeting: Email users

What Is It: Spoofed email with a “lucky chance to win”

What Are They After: An ITRC staffer received a promotional email from AMAZON. That’s right, all caps, and it was sent from a Gmail account called Amazon.contacts. Those few signs right there should tell you all you need to know about deleting this right away.

However, it was the eight different links in the email that are the most troublesome. There were a couple of links giving you the option to unsubscribe, a few more letting you play their contest/game to win prizes, and even one to find out the answer to a joke.

How Can You Avoid It:

• Never, ever click a link in an email if you cannot verify the sender’s authenticity.
• The same is true of attachments, as the links or attachments likely contain viruses or other malicious software.
• Be careful of spoofed emails, especially since there are a lot of ways scammers can “mask” the company’s email account.

Find more information about current scams and alerts here.