'Amazon 30th Anniversary Celebration' Scam
The 'Amazon 30th Anniversary Celebration' Scam is a fraudulent scheme, which surfaced for the first time near the end of March 2021. The scam appears to target primarily Indian users, but it is possible that it may reach other parts of the globe as well. What is even more interesting is the method that the scammers rely on to reach out to their victims – instead of online ads or spam email, they rely on the WhatsApp messaging service.
The bogus message comes from a profile branded to look like an official Amazon account, and it informs the user that they have been chosen to win some great gifts because of Amazon's 30th anniversary. In order to claim the prizes, however, users must follow a link and complete a short survey. This is where things start to get fishy. The survey asks for personally identifiable information like the user's name, age, phone, and address. After this, it shows several gift boxes on the screen that the user has to interact with to choose a random prize. Once a gift is chosen, the user is told to download an app, which will ask them for additional information needed in order to dispatch the prize. Needless to say, downloading a shady app from someone impersonating Amazon is a bad idea, and you are likely to end up encountering malware.
Even if the app itself is not malicious, there is no prize to receive – instead, the scammers may use the bogus app to ask you for more information, including payment details. It is also possible that their end-goal might be to get users involved in a phishing scam used to hijack Amazon login credentials or other data.
The 'Amazon 30th Anniversary Celebration' Scam is still active, so take note of the article above – it should be enough to help you spot and avoid such scams in the future.
