Scammers love a sale more than you do

“Prime Day starts now!”
 And with it… a wave of scams.

In the weeks leading up to Prime Day, researchers uncovered hundreds — even up to 120,000 — fake websites spun up to exploit the hype. That’s not unique to Amazon. Every major shopping event — from Black Friday to back-to-school sales — sparks the same scammer gold rush.

Why? Because scammers know:

• We’re hunting for deals.
• Urgency makes us click before we think.
• It’s the perfect storm: urgency + FOMO + shiny discounts.

Here’s how scammers cash in:

• Fake shopping sites that look almost identical to the real ones.
• Emails or texts about “account issues” or “shipment problems.”
• Too-good-to-be-true deals that make your brain skip the logic check.

How to stay scam-proof — no matter the sale:

• Always start from a place you already trust: your existing bookmarks, your password manager, or by typing the known legitimate URL directly (e.g., amazon.com — not whatever link just showed up in your inbox).
• Don’t trust deals that come to you in an email, text, or popup. If it looks tempting, go to the real site yourself and see if it’s actually there.
• Breathe before you click. Scammers feed on urgency. If you slow down, you win.

At the end of the day, the best deal isn’t the one that saves you $50 on a gadget. It’s the one where you don’t hand over your credit card, account login, or personal data to a scammer.

Because the ultimate too-good-to-be-true deal? That’s the one the scammer offers you.