Amazon’s Prime Day is back! The famous sale days are July 12-13, but like Black Friday, many prices are dropping early—and other retailers are also fighting back with competing offerings. They key is to find what you want at a a great price while also steering clear of scams.
Finding good deals
One of the challenges of massive sales events like this is finding the things you want amongst a virtual sea of options. Never fear, there are plenty of places you can look to narrow things down a bit—and many are already helping you find early deals.
- Blackfriday.com. Don’t let the name fool you. Yes, they’re a great site for Black Friday info but they also keep their finger on other big sales and hot prices throughout the year—including Prime Day.
- Allure. The popular magazine is sharing its picks for the 11 Best Prime Day Wellness Deals 2022 to Upgrade your Self-Care Routine.
- Esquire. They’ve selected the best men’s socks and underwear you should buy on sale to give your wardrobe a little upgrade or refresh.
- The Verge. If tech is your focus, The Verge is a solid source of hot Prime Day deals. They also will be live blogging Amazon’s Lightning Deals so their coverage will be pretty comprehensive (including competitor sales).
- Tom’s Guide. The website that reviews and tests the latest products is breaking down all of the deals by category (check out that left column!). From robot vacs and TVs, to back-to-school and gaming gear, they’ve got you.
- House Beautiful. The home-focused outlet has identified all kinds of kitchen deals that you might want to put on your shopping list. From cookware to air fryers, to storage containers and waffle makers, they’ve got ideas for you.
- Bon Appetit. Still want more kitchen picks? Bon Appetit has you covered—which doesn’t really overlap with the House Beautiful list, so check it out.
- Gamespot. As you might expect from the name, this site is on the lookout for the best gaming-related deals for Prime Day. Note: They’re also rounding up other Prime Day and competitor tech deals too!
- National publications. Let’s not forget large national publications like USAToday, the New York Times, NBC News, CBS News, and more. They’re already rounding up info on some of the deepest discounts, so while they may not dive deeply into product “genres”, you’ll find some of the hot deals looking at places like these.
Avoid scams
Now that you have some solid places to scope out the best sale items, now let’s talk about something less fun: scams.
Prime Day is a big deal, with loads of advertising and buzz surrounding it. That means scammers will use this event as an opportunity to try and steal from your wallet. We scoured a variety of sources to gather info about common scams you need to watch out for.
- Fake Amazon websites. We’ve talked about this before relative to holiday shopping, but the same applies for Prime Day. Scammers create a real-looking website hoping to trick you into “buying” things off their fake website—all while gathering your payment information.
- Phishing emails and text messages. Those random links we just mentioned? Those may come from phishing emails or text messages (reminder: Five Ways to Spot a Phishing Scam). They may claim your Amazon Prime account has a payment issue, that you have rewards to use, or even send a message that contains fake delivery information.
How can you stay safe? By never clicking on links or attachments from unknown sources—and, even it looks legit, check the sender email address, website URL, or phone number. To be really safe, enter the URL address yourself and contact the sender directly (or “sender” as the case may be) by looking up the information on your own if there’s any question about your account or payment information.
Think it couldn’t happen to you? Think again. Federal Trade Commission data from 2021 shows that consumers lost more than $5.8 billion (yes, with a B) to fraud last year. That’s up more than 70 percent from 2020!
So, have fun browsing and buying—but also stay aware while you shop. If you do, you’ll get nothing but great deals during this summer shopping event.
