Everyone with Amazon Prime urged to follow four new rules - ignoring could be costly

Online bargain hunters across the UK will be gearing up for next week’s Amazon Prime Day sale, an event that, despite its name, is actually across four days. From Tuesday July 8 to Friday July 11, 2025, Amazon’s UK site will be stuffed with discounts on thousands of products, including many popular tech products such as smartphones, headphones, tablets, smartwatches and Bluetooth speakers.

As long as you’re signed up to Amazon Prime, a subscription that costs £8.99 per month or is free via a 30-day trial, you get access to four days of deals.

But such a popular online shopping event has caught the unwanted attention of criminals, who are said to be hoping to scam Amazon customers out of their hard earned cash.

According to cybersecurity and VPN firm NordVPN, more than 120,000 phishing, malware, and scam websites impersonating Amazon have been created in the past two months.

It means you should be extra vigilant next week if you want to take part in the Prime Day sales, as cybercriminals are out in force trying to trick you into using websites that look like the real Amazon, but are in fact designed to steal your money.

NordVPN said its data showed a huge spike in “malicious activity” during Amazon’s spring sale earlier this year, and warned Amazon shoppers to be wary come Prime Day next week.

"Major shopping events like Prime Day create perfect storms for cybercriminals,” said Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer (CTO) at NordVPN.

“Scammers know that shoppers' excitement and urgency around limited-time deals make them more susceptible to clicking on malicious links or sharing personal information without proper verification. People should maintain good cyber hygiene even when looking for the best deals.”

The firm gave Amazon shoppers four clear rules to help avoid scams on Prime Day:

• Always shop directly through Amazon's official website (amazon.com) to protect yourself from Prime Day scams.
• Verify that URLs display "https://" with a padlock icon before entering personal information.
• Be suspicious of deals that seem too good to be true.
• Prices significantly below market value are often red flags for counterfeit goods or outright fraud.”

Some limited-time deals on Prime Day are known as Lightning Deals, and have a ticking clock next to them, counting down the time until the sale price ends. It’s this urgency that criminals are hoping to prey on.

NordVPN said over the two month period it detected and blocked 92,000 phishing sites with ‘Amazon’ in the domain name. Phishing is when criminals create websites that impersonate a legitimate service in the hopes people will enter their credit card information and pay for what they think is a product or service, when in fact the money and those sensitive payment details are sent directly to the fraudsters.

According to Amazon, scammers are changing their methods. Where once they tried to hack access to customer accounts, they are now using fake sites to trick people into making direct unauthorised payments instead. Amazon said this form of fraud rose 38 percent in May 2025 alone.

“Amazon reminds consumers that the company will never request payments outside its secure platform,” Amazon said. “No legitimate Amazon communication will ever ask for account passwords or one-time codes. We strongly encourage consumers to stay vigilant and report any suspicious communications to Amazon’s self-reporting tool or by contacting Amazon Customer Service directly.”