Are we witnessing an increase in Amazon seller frauds with the busy shopping days of Cyber Monday and Black Friday? We have heard from several sellers, all of whom received unsolicited calls and emails. So we decided to investigate.
While you may think of phishing scams in the same way as money transfer requests to foreign countries (or vice versa), these scammers seem to be targeting Amazon sellers. That could not happen to you.
The truth is that scammers are becoming more sophisticated. They are clearly familiar with Amazon and will use convincing language to convince sellers that they are scammers. Protecting your Amazon seller account is your top priority. There’s nothing worse than being threatened! Here are the facts:
1. Always pay attention to the email sender’s and/or URL
Phishing scams and email cons go hand in hand, so it is important to know how to recognize a fake. An email sent by Amazon is authentic if the address ends with @amazon.com
@amazon.com is the only acceptable variant.
Also, check the header information of the email. It is not from Amazon if the email’s “received form”, “reply from”, or “return pathway” does not come from Amazon .
Here are some examples of emails used by phishing con artist:
seller-performance@payments-amazon.com
amazon-security@hotmail.com
amazon-payments@msn.com
Reportedly, the link https://sellercentral-secure-amazon.com has been used recently to ask sellers to sign in. It appears legitimate at first glance because it includes “seller central” as well as “amazon” within the link. This is what I found by copying and pasting into an incognito web browser. It’s not surprising, as the domain should be obvious. Genuine Amazon websites always end with “.amazon.com” or “sellercentral.amazon.com.” They will never use a combination such as “security-amazon.com” or “amazon.com.biz.”
Another seller reports a texting phishing scam that asks sellers to login at https://www.sellers-amazon.com. The “amazon.com is an red flag. If you receive one of these emails and are unsure if it is real, you can go to Amazon or the Seller Central website. A link that appears to take you directly to Amazon accounts is a common phishing email. It’s actually a shorter link that will take to you to a completely other website. You can often see the URL of the link if you hover your mouse over it ( Don’t Click It!), and you can determine if it is fake. You should also flag any obvious spelling or grammar errors in your email.
2. Step Verification
The two-step authentication process required to sign in to Seller Central accounts is not sufficient for most sellers. This requires you to receive a 6-digit code via another computer. Usually, the code is sent to your phone via a two-factor app like Authy and Google Authenticator. If an alleged Amazon representative calls you or emails you, and asks for login using a code they provide to your phone, that’s a red Flag. Do not wait to enable a 2-step verification sign in. This is an important step to protect yourself.
3. Don’t share your bank details
It should be obvious that your bank details are confidential. Amazon emails won’t ask you to confirm or share your bank information, password or identifying info (such your mother’s maiden names, favorite pet or city of birth). Amazon will only accept sensitive bank documents that have been uploaded through Seller Central’s verification section. This is for security reasons.
Do not send these documents by email if requested. Amazon may need to contact you in urgent situations. This could be notifications of patent infringement, account suspend, fraudulent activity, and others. These are obviously the worst-case scenarios. These are the worst-case scenarios. However, they do happen. This is why you should verify the details of your sender before doing anything else.
4. Don’t share your top selling items on Amazon
Sometimes these emails are coming from competitors that are trying to collect your top selling items on Amazon and then plug it into amazon analytics tools to find exactly how much money your product is making and if it’s worth to compete with your product..
If in doubt, don’t click on any link in an email.
You should never believe a phishing email. Always go to the seller account directly to make any changes or review it. Amazon can also be helped to combat spam They have filed lawsuits against email scammers and hackers before and set up a Phishing form for you to submit any suspicious activity. Or, forward a suspicious email or website to stop-spoofing@amazon.com
Although Amazon seller scams don’t seem to be common, you should be ready for them. You must take all precautions to protect your bank information, your products, and your seller account. Then, if you are targeted, you will know what to do and what not to do).