Amazon became the second most impersonated organization for scams in 2020 behind Service Canada.
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Mar 12, 2021 • 39 minutes ago • 1 minute read • 
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The Better Business Bureau are warning people about an emerging text scam in which fraudsters impersonate Amazon.
It’s known as the Amazon raffle scam, or the fitness watch text or the Apple watch raffle scam.
This is how the scam works: A congratulatory text message comes to your phone saying that you have won an Airpod, Apple Watch or some other enticing prize from Amazon.
Several reports to bureau’s Scam Tracker mention text messages coming from the numbers (714) 883 – 6385 and (714) 507 – 5880, but there are many other numbers being used. The text message also includes instructions to click a suspicious link to arrange delivery of the item.
However, the text message is not from Amazon and is part of a long list of Amazon impersonation scams that have been happening since the start of the pandemic, according to the agency.
The bogus raffle and suspicious link are part of a con used to trick people into visiting a phishing website, where they share account credentials and financial information with fraudsters.
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“Last year, BBB received an overwhelming number of reports about scammers impersonating Amazon,” said Karla Laird, a B.C. spokesperson for the bureau.
Laird said Amazon became the second most impersonated organization in 2020 behind Service Canada. However, scammers are also sending similar texts impersonating other popular brands like Netflix, where they ask for your password, username, or a payment method.
The bureau says as a general rule, companies cannot send you text messages unless you opt in to receive them, and any unsolicited text message should be considered a potential scam.
Even if you realize the message is a scam, the bureau says you should not text back for any reason. Scammers may want you to text back to verify that your phone number is an active one.
