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Criminals are targeting 220-million Amazon Prime customers as they impersonate the eCommerce giant hoping to scare you into renewing your subscription--falsely claiming it's no good anymore. They're attacking you by both email, text and phone. Find out how to recognize the scam, and who is behind it---the answer may surprise you
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0:05
Hey, buddy. Come here.
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Those are some uh pretty nice prime
0:11
benefits you got there. It'd be a shame
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if something happened to them and you
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couldn't use them no more because your
0:19
payment method's no good. But uh don't
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worry, I can fix that for you. All you
0:26
got to do is follow these directions.
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Don't do it.
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Amazon Prime membership. It is the
0:34
cornerstone of the company's business
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strategy, acting as a crucial driver for
0:38
customer loyalty as well as generating
0:41
$45 billion in revenue for the firm.
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They don't want any negative stigma
0:47
associated with being a Prime member.
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That's for sure.
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That's why Amazon is sending out this
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warning to its 222 million Prime members
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after a flood of phony emails. It says
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your accounts are under attack because
1:01
scammers are impersonating Amazon in a
1:04
prime membership scheme. Experts say the
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attacks being generated by highly
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sophisticated crime syndicates which are
1:11
using all kinds of social engineering
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tricks to get you to click their links.
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You had a tremendous amount of people
1:19
that lost their jobs out in Silicon
1:21
Valley. They were immediately recruited
1:24
by these crime syndicates for their um
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tech prowess.
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Here's some of the syndicates work. This
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scam is exploding in the United States
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and other countries, claiming you need
1:36
to update your payment method to keep
1:38
your Prime membership active. But that's
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not all the scammers are doing.
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They're calling Prime members. They are
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smishing by sending text messages and
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they're fishing by sending these emails.
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So, um, one of the red flags is all of
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these messages have a very, uh, high
1:56
sense of urgency. It might look like
1:58
it's Amazon, but it's just spelled a
2:01
little bit differently. Um, if you get
2:03
any of these messages, go directly to
2:06
your Amazon account and click on
2:09
messages. If Amazon was really trying to
2:11
send you a message, that's where it
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would be. Th this particular scam is so
2:15
insidious. Why is that? Once the person
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clicks on the link or they get
2:20
redirected to a fishing website, then
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they're going to have access to all of
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the other accounts. So, it's not just
2:28
Amazon. They're trying to get into your
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bank accounts. They're trying to get
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into social security account. They're
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trying to get into every financial that
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you have set up. Last year alone, Amazon
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found more than 55,000 fishing websites
2:43
and 12,000 phone numbers using their
2:47
name as part of impersonation schemes.
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To protect yourself, enable two-factor
2:53
authentication. You should also be wary
2:56
of any false urgency to get you to act
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quickly. And also, if there's any
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questions, go to the Amazon website and
3:04
check them directly for messages as well
3:06
as information on purchases working for
3:08
you. I'm the consumer guy, Steve Spraer.
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