Amazon has become a popular target for cybercrime. Many cybercriminals have found the keys to seize the accounts of million users and access their personal and bank data, in addition to in some cases making purchases with the victims’ own accounts. These hacks happen because many users are unaware of the bad practices and forms of phishing that scammers can use to take over their accounts. Next, we show you ways they can hack your Amazon account.
Through emails
If a stranger manages to take possession of our Amazon account, the first step they usually take is to change the access data to the account to avoid that, if we become aware of the theft, we cannot access it. It is also common for them to try to buy items with one of the payment methods that we have configured in our account. The hacker can use an empty house to send the products, a locker or compromise a third party to receive the fraudulent purchases.
Phishing emails have become one of the most effective options for hacking an Amazon account. The design of these emails is very similar to the shape and image that an Amazon email can have. It is common for them to include a link that will take us to a page where Amazon is supposed to ask us to enter our account credentials, but in reality it is a phishing website where scammers manage to get hold of our data. Once the victim enters their credentials, the data is passed directly to the cybercriminal.
How to recognize a phishing email
Some of the ways we have to recognize a phishing email and that will give us reason to distrust are the following:
- Errors and misspellings in the message
- Verify the sender’s address
- Check if the domain belongs to Amazon
- Do not click on any link in the email if you are suspicious
- Weak passwords
If we have a weak password In order to access our Amazon account, it is more than likely that a hacker can decrypt it using automated software.
To prevent automatic programs giving our access password, we must avoid indicating personal data in them, such as our date of birth, the name of our pet or any type of data that is very obvious. For a password to be considered secure it must have more than 10 characters and include a combination of letters numbers and symbols.
Data dump
Every time we register with a website, we run the risk of that website being attacked and our password be stolen and posted on the internet. It is for this reason that we must avoid using the same password on different websites. If we use it and that website is hacked, we will cause several of our accounts to be compromised.
The best advice we can give you is to use a password different and unique both in the Amazon account and in the rest of your Gmail access accounts, subscriptions to streaming platforms, etc.
Keyloggers
A keylogger is nothing more than a type of malicious software that, once installed on our computer, records all the keystrokes we make. So through this method they can also steal the Amazon account.
To avoid keylogging attacks we must avoid malicious websites while it is highly recommended to have an antivirus installed on our computer and always keep it updated so that it works correctly and can detect this type of malware.
Through our email
Another way in which they can steal our Amazon account is through our own email, that is, if the company with which we have our email account is attacked and our access data to it goes to the light, cybercriminals could also access our Amazon account credentials.
To prevent this from happening, the email address that we have associated with our Amazon account must have a unique and secure password. In addition, it is also highly recommended to enable the two-step authentication. By using two-step authentication all the hacking methods described above can be avoided.
This security measures makes it very difficult for them to steal our account, since they would also have to have access to a second mobile device, which is normally our mobile phone. We can activate two-step authentication by accessing our amazon account and going to the security section.