Amazon is turning to AI to help fight scammers, the company announced on Wednesday. The retailer said some 360,000 customers every year reach out to its customer service department, wondering whether a message they received from Amazon is real or a scam. Now, customers will be able to ask Amazon’s consumer AI service, Alexa for Shopping, to help answer that question instead.
The company said its AI can “definitively” confirm whether a communication originated from its own systems by checking it against the billions of messages Amazon has sent globally. The AI analyzes the sender information, content, timing, message metadata, and more, to determine authenticity. Amazon said the system will improve as customers report more suspicious messages, helping it to spot scams more effectively in the future.
The new AI capabilities follow on Amazon’s earlier attempts to address the growing scam problem, which includes fake order confirmations, Prime membership renewal alerts, account suspension warnings, package delivery notifications, and job scams.
Earlier this year, Amazon launched an email address, verify@amazon.com, that allows anyone to forward suspicious messages to the company and receive a response that confirms whether the email was a real message or a scam. It also offers an online form on its customer service site that provides the same assistance.
The feature’s addition is aanother example of how Amazon has shifted its product strategy around Alexa to focus more on how it can assist with shopping-related questions and provide proactive help. Today, the assistant can source personalized deals, create shopping guides, help customers reorder their everyday items, offer AI product overviews, transcribe handwritten shopping lists, and more.
On Tuesday, the retailer also added an Alexa feature that lets customers set alerts when something new or relevant happens, like a favorite brand launching a new product, the release of a new book from a favorite author, or an artist dropping a new record.
Alexa for Shopping is available from both the Amazon website and mobile app.
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Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen produced a mixed night for Galatasaray on Friday, scoring against İstanbul Başakşehir before being forced off with an injury that could raise concerns over his availability for Nigeria’s upcoming 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Osimhen opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a stunning effort to put Galatasaray ahead.
However, his night was cut short after he appeared to suffer a problem following a challenge with Christopher Operi in the 23rd minute. The Nigerian striker continued briefly but later felt the problem again after making a run behind the defence and signalled that he could not continue.
Osimhen was eventually substituted in the 33rd minute, with Barış Alper Yılmaz coming on as his replacement.
Initial reports describe the problem as a suspected muscle/groin injury, but there is currently no confirmed diagnosis or recovery timeline. Osimhen himself reportedly admitted after the incident that he did not yet know whether the injury was serious.
The timing could be significant for Nigeria.
The Super Eagles are scheduled to begin their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign against Madagascar on September 23, before travelling to face Guinea-Bissau on September 27.
That leaves Nigeria with just under three weeks before the Madagascar encounter, meaning Osimhen could still have time to recover if the injury proves minor. However, a significant muscle strain or tear could put his participation in doubt.
For now, Osimhen has not been ruled out of the Super Eagles’ upcoming matches, and his availability will depend on further medical examinations and his recovery over the coming days.
The immediate concern for Nigeria will therefore be the results of those assessments.
He scored a spectacular goal, but the biggest question tonight is whether Osimhen will be fit when Nigeria need him most.
Nscale, a British AI infrastructure company founded just two years ago, has said it may go public as early as later this month. Ahead of that expected IPO, the company is reportedly in talks to raise an additional $3.5 billion.
Bloomberg reported Friday that the company is looking to sell $1.5 billion in convertible notes — a type of loan that can later convert into company stock — to a group of investors, while also seeking an additional $2 billion in financing from Nvidia.
Nvidia also participated in the firm’s Series B funding round in March, a $1.1 billion raise led by investment fund Aker. Nscale hailed its round as “the largest Series B in European history.” The company’s Series A round, in December of 2024, raised $155 million.
TechCrunch reached out to Nscale and Nvidia for comment.
AI infrastructure startups have seen immense growth amid the current era of AI enthusiasm, wherein compute has become a competitive currency.
Nscale recently signed a large deal with Anthropic worth approximately $45 billion. Earlier this week, reports emerged that Nscale had been telling potential investors that it has approximately $103 billion in revenue following the deal. That figure isn’t current sales; it’s a projection based on signed customer leases, according to The Information.