Amazon, Apple, Microsoft among top brands used by scammers

Consumers need to be wary of scam emails that claim to be from top American brands, a new report says.

Amazon was the most "impersonated" by phishing attackers in 2020, accounting for 41.5% of all complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, totaling 1,262 phishing incidents, CrowdStrike said, adding that many more went unreported. Apple accounted for 33.3%, with 1,012 complaints. Together these tech giants accounted for 74.7% of all impersonation complaints analyzed, CrowdStrike said. The Social Security Administration (SSA) was third in the ranking of organizations faked by scammers. And among all U.S. federal agencies, the SSA accounted for 91.8% of phishing scam complaints, CrowdStrike said.