Amazon announced in September 2026 that it is adding a scam-detection feature to Alexa for Shopping, its consumer AI service, allowing customers to verify whether suspicious emails, texts, and other messages genuinely originated from the retailer.
The company said approximately 360,000 customers contact its customer service department each year to ask whether a message they received from Amazon is legitimate. The new feature gives those customers a direct way to get that answer through Alexa for Shopping, available on the Amazon website and mobile app.
According to Amazon, the AI can “definitively” confirm whether a communication came from its own systems by checking it against the billions of messages Amazon has sent globally. The system analyzes sender information, content, timing, and message metadata to determine authenticity. Amazon added that the system will improve over time as customers report more suspicious messages.
The feature targets a range of common scam types, including fake order confirmations, Prime membership renewal alerts, account suspension warnings, package delivery notifications, and job scams. It builds on earlier steps Amazon has taken to address the problem, including the launch of a dedicated email address — verify@amazon.com — where anyone can forward suspicious messages to receive a confirmation of their legitimacy. An online form on Amazon’s customer service site offers the same function.
The addition is part of a broader shift in Amazon’s product strategy for Alexa toward shopping-related assistance. The assistant currently supports tasks such as sourcing personalized deals, creating shopping guides, reordering everyday items, offering AI product overviews, and transcribing handwritten shopping lists. On the day before the scam-detection announcement, Amazon also added an Alexa feature that lets customers set alerts for events like a favorite brand launching a new product or an author releasing a new book.
Source: TechCrunch