5 on Your Side: Be wary of Amazon Prime Day Early Access scams

Is it too early for holiday shopping? Amazon hopes you don’t think so.

Monday and Tuesday, they're hosting Amazon Prime Day early access.

But watch out, the event is a big draw for scammers and fraudulent behavior.

Amazon related phishing attacks were up nearly 40% during the week of the last Prime Day. A phishing scam is all about tricking you into sharing private information.

Here’s what to look out for:

• A message might look like it’s really from Amazon, but many times it’s not. Check Point Research says a message with the subject “Your Amazon account has been disabled” is an attempt by the attacker to scare victims into clicking a malicious link.
• Malicious links can redirect the user to a fraudulent Amazon account page asking you to verify billing information. But in reality, your information is just going to scammers.
• Once they get this information they will use it to log into everything from your bank accounts to credit cards, anything they can get their hands on.
• Bottom line don’t trust an email, instead log directly into your amazon account and get your information that way.

And if you are going to make a purchase buy with a credit card which will give you greater fraud protection.