Realistic Amazon scam hits Mississauga, Brampton and the GTA

A realistic scam is fooling some residents in Mississauga, Brampton and across the GTA.

Some people have recently received an email informing them their Amazon order is confirmed. However, they didn’t actually place an order.

Scams like these are called ‘phishing’, an attempt to get people to ‘log in’ to their accounts at a fake website in order for scammers to obtain user names and passwords.

One of the best ways to determine a phishing attempt is to check if your full name is on the email. Legitimate companies know who you are and always include it. No company will ask you to provide your user credentials via email.

The best recourse if you receive something like this is to delete them without opening. If you want to see if it’s real, simply go to the website of the company directly via browser or open the company’s app. If there’s something that needs to be dealt with, it will be there.

According to the Amazon customer service page, emails, phone calls, or text messages from Amazon will never ask you for personal information.

If you receive a suspicious correspondence, here are some tips to determine if it’s from Amazon.ca:

• If you received suspicious communication pretending to be from Amazon and you don’t have an account with us, report it to us at [email protected]
• Amazon will never send you an unsolicited message that asks you to provide sensitive personal information like your social insurance number, tax ID, bank account number, credit card information, ID questions like your mother’s maiden name or your password
• Amazon will never ask you to make a payment outside of our website and will never ask you for remote access to your device
• While some departments at Amazon will make outbound calls to customers, Amazon will never ask you to disclose or verify sensitive personal information, or offer you a refund you do not expect

To report something suspicious directly to Amazon, visit this website.