Online scams are seemingly as old as the Internet itself. And in the decades since the World Wide Web has overtaken telecommunications, the mail system, and seemingly every other form of human communication, there have been no shortage of scammers and cybercriminals looking to take advantage of gullible web surfers in the pursuit of fast profits.
The ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up scam is yet another attempt to cash in for online profiteers, this time via a fake survey promoted by deceitful websites. The ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up scam attempts to trick users into believing that they are being presented with a survey by Apple, but Apple has absolutely no connection to this scam.
The goal of the ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up scam is to procure data from users. The operators behind this ruse achieve this by promising a prize, usually a brand-new iPhone 11 Pro. While users fill out the survey, the page demands that users input personal data including name, address, age, gender, email address, or even credit card information and banking details. The provided information will be recorded and then potentially misused by the fraudsters.
First off, individuals that have offered banking or credit card information may see cybercriminals quickly rack up hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent charges. The collected data may also be sold to other third parties that may leverage the information in a multitude of ways.
Another aspect of the ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up scam is that it may ask individuals who have completed the survey to pay a transfer, delivery fee, or processing charges in order to receive the promised prize. Victims may pay these fees and find themselves waiting for a prize that never arrives.
It should be noted that victims of scams like the ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up usually land on the pages displaying the survey as a result of redirects that were possibly caused by either a previously visited website, or an adware application, a browser hijacker, or a potentially unwanted program.
How Do I Avoid Online Schemes like the ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up scam?
If you’ve recently landed on a web page that displayed the ‘Amazon Loyalty Program’ pop-up scam, it is strongly recommended that you perform a system scan with a reputable anti-malware solution and then delete all suspicious applications that have been detected. It goes without saying that you should be extremely careful when dealing with online offers that sound too good to be true. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself as the latest cybercrime victim.
