Before hunting for deep discounts on Amazon Prime Day, 5 On Your Side is warning you about the pitfalls to watch out for while you shop and after.

There are several scams to watch out for:

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Phishing emails or texts

Scammers may send fake Amazon emails or texts with deals or account issues. Avoid clicking links; go directly to Amazon’s website.

Unverified sellers

While Amazon has many trusted third-party sellers, scammers are also present. Always check seller ratings and reviews and be cautious if a seller has few or none.

Fake Amazon websites

Scammers create fake websites to steal your info. Always check the URL for "https://" and a padlock symbol to confirm it's the official Amazon site before buying.

Artificial intelligence is contributing to scams.

"We are starting to see a lot of attackers using artificial intelligence to write their emails, to create their websites from the attacker website," explained Zulfikar Ramzan, CEO of Aura Labs. "That gives them the benefit of creating a site, of giving them a much more professional look and feel ... those grammatical errors and typos are a thing of the past."

Remember to stay vigilant -- once scammers get your money, it’s often difficult to recover.

At Amazon’s same-day distribution facility in Durham, Prime Day is on par with some of the biggest retail holidays of the year.

“We deliver for our customers about the same amount of packages when it comes to Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the week leading up to Christmas,” Miguel Rios, warehouse site leader, said.

It’s not just Amazon -- Walmart, Target and other retailers are putting on their best sales to compete.

“Whenever there’s a time of year when there’s a lot of sales, we always recommend people do their research,” said Meredith Radford with the Better Business Bureau, Eastern Carolinas.

There are several things you can do to protect yourself when shopping online:

  • If you’re buying from Amazon, look into the actual seller of the product and save any contact information you can.
    • If you get a questionable text claiming your package is stuck in the warehouse requesting you to click a link to update your info – DON’T.
      • The fake package delivery scams happen all the time,” Radford said. “I still get them, you get them, and that’s something to look out for after the sales are over, too.”
    • Remember that social media ads aren’t always trustworthy. If you see an ad for a particular item on sale, you should be able to go directly to the seller and use the search tool to find it.
    • Beware of lookalike websites.
      • At first glance, it might look like the real thing, but once you take a second and dig a little deeper, the links on the website don’t work the way they should, the URL looks fishy, a weird combination of letters and numbers,” Radford warned.
    • Pay with a credit card if you have that option. Credit cards give you more protection than debit cards or payment apps.

      • Read more on how you can protect your Prime Day packages from porch pirates here.