PSA: Amazon’s shopping AI can now tell you if that message is a scam

Amazon is turning to AI to help fight scammers, announcing that customers can now ask its consumer AI service, Alexa for Shopping, to determine if a received message is real or a scam. The company noted that roughly 360,000 customers reach out annually to check message authenticity. The AI can definitively confirm whether a communication originated from Amazon by checking it against billions of messages sent globally. It analyzes sender information, content, timing, and metadata to evaluate authenticity, and the system will improve over time as users report suspicious messages. This capability addresses growing scam vectors including fake order confirmations, Prime membership alerts, account suspensions, delivery notifications, and job scams. Earlier this year, Amazon launched verify@amazon.com and an online form to assist with manual verification. The feature reflects Amazon's broader product strategy shift for Alexa to provide proactive shopping assistance, personalized deals, product overviews, and other daily consumer tasks.