Stay Safe Shopping Online - Amazon Prime Days

Update 7/2024:  Time to get some deals with Amazon Prime Day 2024, July 16th-17th, but make sure you are safe with a couple safe shopping online tips. Remember, if sounds too good to be true, it’s likely a scam.

Amazon is slowly outranking search engines when it comes to product searches and shopping inspiration. An EMarketer study in 2023 shows that 57% of consumers go to Amazon when searching for products. But, that doesn’t mean all the social media ads or email that appear from Amazon are from Amazon. Phishing emails using the Amazon brand to add legitimacy top the list, but scams involving text messages and even phone calls saying they are from Amazon have been reported.

How do you stay safe shopping online During Prime days?

Simple tips to shopping online:

• Do NOT use your debit, use a credit card - no protection with your debit card
• Don’t browse on public Wi-Fi! - yes, do not use the free WiFi at coffee shop, gym, etc
• Secure password -Use a complex set of lower and uppercase numbers, letters, and symbols or passphrase
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) -  user to provide two or more verification factors to gain access
• Don’t fall for email or text scams - offering amazing bargains or claiming there’s been a problem, do not open any links. Pull up Amazon website and deal with then directly.
• Same goes for ads on social media - do not directly click a link. Go to www.amazon.com directly

Update 2024: Primes Day is only two days of online shopping. In 2023, the number of digital buyers was at 2.64 billion. That’s  over 33% of the population worldwide. In other words, more than one out of every three people you see around you is an online shopper.

Time to share this information with anyone who may shop online - keep them shopping online today!

CorpInfoTech (Corporate Information Technologies) provides small to mid-market organizations with expert I.T. services including compliance assessment, cybersecurity penetration tests, and comprehensive business continuity planning services. CorpInfoTech can help organizations, quantify, create, refine, and mitigate the risks presented by business threatening disasters in whatever form they may be disguised.