ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — With the holiday season well underway, many shoppers are turning to the internet to make their holiday purchases.
"Especially on Cyber Monday, I did a lot of shopping,” said shopper Chris Bryan.
But the Better Business Bureau is now warning online shoppers like Bryan about an email that appears to be from Amazon.
It said a recent order can't be shipped without confirming the customer's information.
A link says “click here,” then sends the customer to a web page that looks like it belongs to Amazon and asks for credit card information, name and address.
"Scammers take advantage of times like this--holidays when people are in a rush,” said Erika Urdaneta of the BBB of Central Florida.
Online shopper Scott Polk said while he doesn’t think he’d personally click on the link, he can understand how some people might be fooled.
"I know it's online, trying to do it fast and people obviously do get caught. I hope it doesn't happen to me,” said Polk.
The BBB said there are ways to spot fraud, and a part of it comes down to paying close attention to the URL.
“If you receive an email that takes you to a link that starts with ‘http:’ and it's missing an ‘s’ at the end, that’s a red flag,” said Urdaneta.
The 's' in that section of the URL stands for "secure."
Shoppers are also urged to go directly to Amazon’s website if they believe there is a problem with their order.
Cox Media Group
