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There’s one Amazon business model growing incredibly fast right before Black Friday.

Unfortunately, it’s scamming people.

Amazon remains one of the world’s most impersonated brands in phishing attacks, alongside Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google and Apple. Together, those five brands account for more than half of reported brand-phishing attempts in the research cited by SellerBites.

And Amazon-related attacks are accelerating heading into peak shopping season.

KnowBe4 Threat Lab reportedly recorded a 188% jump in Amazon impersonation attacks between late August and September, while newly registered Amazon-themed domains increased 42% during the same period in separate research cited by SellerBites.

More than 95% of the attacks examined reportedly linked users to cloned login or payment pages.

Welcome to Q4.

Where sellers chase conversions and scammers chase passwords.

Why Amazon?

Simple.

Trust.

Scammers don’t need to create a believable company from scratch when Amazon already has one of the most recognizable ecommerce brands on Earth.

Send somebody a random email saying:

“Nick’s Super Secure Payment Corporation detected a suspicious transaction.”

Delete.

Send:

“Amazon: Your account has been suspended. Verify your payment details immediately.”

Now you’ve got attention.

Especially during November when customers are genuinely placing multiple Amazon orders and expecting delivery notifications every day.

Fraudsters understand conversion optimization too.

• Urgency.
• Fear.
• Recognizable branding.
• One-click CTA.

Just unfortunately pointed at a fake login page.

Your Brand Can Become Collateral Damage

Amazon takes the largest reputational hit from Amazon impersonation scams.

But marketplace sellers aren’t completely protected.

Fake stores can steal your product images.

Scammers can copy your branding.

Fake advertisements can use your products.

Customers can then associate the terrible experience with your brand even though you had absolutely nothing to do with it.

That’s why monitoring shouldn’t stop at your Amazon listing.

Search your brand name occasionally.

Search your hero products.

Look for strange ads.

Watch for suspicious domains.

And if someone is stealing your intellectual property or product imagery, report it quickly through the appropriate channels, including Amazon Brand Registry where applicable.

Educate Customers Without Scaring Them

Brands should also consider adding simple reminders to post-purchase communications.

You don’t need to write a cybersecurity manual.

Just tell customers where legitimate account and order information comes from.

Encourage them to verify suspicious messages directly inside their Amazon account instead of blindly clicking links from texts or emails.

Thirty seconds of education can save someone from handing over their credentials.

Peak Season Means Peak Scamming Season

Everybody knows ecommerce traffic spikes around Black Friday.

So does criminal traffic.

More orders mean more delivery emails.

More delivery emails mean more opportunities for fake delivery emails.

More promotions mean more opportunities for fake promotions.

Scammers basically run seasonal campaigns too.

So while you’re obsessing over ACoS, inventory, coupons and conversion rates this BFCM, add one more thing to the dashboard:

Brand protection.

Because the customer clicking a fake Amazon page doesn’t know who actually created it.

They just know they got burned.

And sometimes your logo is standing right next to the fire.

🔥Join eCom Hot Sauce newsletter if you want to get such hot news and tips before the other eCom peeps!