Amazon filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington on Tuesday against unknown individuals who used its brand name to send email scams. The scam emails made fake offers, trying to lure users into clicking on links that took them to specific advertisers and websites.
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“These malicious actors are misusing our brand to deceive the public, and we hold them accountable,” said Kathy Sheehan, vice president of business conduct and ethics at Amazon. “We also want to remind consumers to be vigilant and learn how to recognize the signs of a scam so they can protect themselves, no matter where they shop.”
According to the maker of the anti-spam app RoboKiller, spam messages are becoming a more popular scam than robocalls as people increasingly avoid answering calls from unknown numbers. RoboKiller said it detected more than 7.4 billion spam messages in March alone.
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Courts and regulators have previously taken down scammers who used the Amazon name. In March, the FTC took legal action to stop a scammer from selling “work-from-home” opportunities while using the Amazon name. Amazon also filed lawsuits against scammers in three states in June 2020, and four people in other cases agreed to stop using the company’s name in marketing messages.
In Tuesday's case, the scammers send text messages offering rewards and gifts, the company said. Targets are then directed to a survey that also uses the Amazon name and then sent to websites selling products unrelated to Amazon. The scammers make money from advertisers and websites for generating traffic, Amazon says.
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The FTC says phone users should be wary of messages offering free prizes, gifts, coupons or other really good deals. Other common scams claim that users' phones are infected with malware or provide information about a package being shipped.
