Alexa for Shopping, Amazon’s retail-focused AI tool, can now verify if communications from the company are authentic in a move the company hopes will keep customers safer.

The retail giant said that it receives 360,000 queries a year regarding the legitimacy of messages that supposedly come from Amazon. Now, users will be able to check calls, messages, emails or texts they receive with the company’s AI chatbot.

Users can provide details of the message received, including where it came from, when it arrived and what it said. The bot then compares these details against Amazon’s record of every communication it has ever sent, a process the company said involved analysing sender information, content, timing, and formatting.

The tool tells users if the message came from Amazon, did not come from Amazon, or if it is unclear.

“Scammers thrive when customers can't easily verify whether a message is real,” said Scott Knapp, vice president of worldwide buyer risk prevention at Amazon. “That’s why we built a tool to put certainty directly in customers’ hands, in real time, when they need it most. It’s part of our broader commitment to educate and empower customers and protect them against scams.”

Alexa is just one of the tools available to users to check messages’ veracity. Earlier in the year, Amazon launched verify@amazon.com, an email address that can check if forwarded messages are real, and it offers the same functionality on its customer service page.

Alexa for Shopping was released in May, and was touted by the company as the “world’s best, most personalized AI assistant for shopping.” Amazon began leasing the technology behind the agent to rival retailers later that month.

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