While you’re on a shopping spree, make sure you avoid Black Friday scams!
‘Tis the season to be jolly and buy a lot of products for bargain prices, but also be extra careful about Black Friday scams. This period has become a global phenomenon, a highly anticipated event where retailers offer deep discounts, kicking off the holiday shopping season. While everybody is running to the closest store or clicking refresh on their favorite website to see the discounts and quickly add everything to the cart before they disappear in the blink of an eye, there are a lot of hackers and swindlers ready to take advantage of our shopping fever. This collective excitement, often fueled by a fear of missing out (FOMO), creates the perfect environment for cybercriminals, who are not just lone wolves but often organized groups, to launch sophisticated attacks on unsuspecting shoppers.
This article will outline the most prevalent kinds of online fraud to be aware of during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a period that sees a massive spike in malicious online activity. It will also include detailed, practical advice on how to avoid falling victim to these Black Friday scams and keep yourself, your personal information, and your finances secure while shopping. A few minutes of vigilance can save you from weeks or even months of dealing with the consequences of fraud, which can range from financial loss to the far more damaging issue of identity theft.
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Do your research
If you want to avoid Black Friday scams, it’s crucial to stick to all the stores you know and trust. Since all of the major brands have strong security measures in place, there is little likelihood that they or you will be hacked. Nevertheless, if you purchase from any website, be sure you’re on the actual store page by using the URL bar of your browser. Scammers often use a technique called “typosquatting” where they register domain names that are slight misspellings of legitimate ones (e.g., “Amazan.com” instead of “Amazon.com”), hoping you won’t notice the difference.
And if and when you’re ready to shop from a small outlet or a new-to-you online store, always check their contact details, address, if they have headquarters, and so on. A legitimate business should have a physical address (not just a P.O. Box), a working customer service phone number, and a professional-looking website free of glaring spelling and grammar errors. It might also be helpful if you look up customer reviews on independent, third-party websites like the Better Business Bureau or Trustpilot, rather than relying solely on the testimonials featured on the seller’s site, which can be easily faked.
If you’re unsure about your credit or debit card issuer’s fraud protection measures, check them online or call the number on the back of your card. Many banks offer robust protection and zero-liability policies for fraudulent charges. However, don’t forget to monitor your bank accounts to avoid Black Friday scams and see if by any chance you’re not charged extra for the payment. For added security, consider setting up real-time transaction alerts via email or SMS, so you are notified the instant a purchase is made with your card.
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Keep an eye on the payment information
If you’re about to shop at one of your bookmarked stores, then you’re totally safe, and probably you don’t have to enter your payment information and all the details again. But if you’re inputting information into a new website, confirm once again that the padlock icon appears in the address bar. The entire URL should start with “https://,” indicating that the information you submit will be encrypted while it’s being transmitted. This SSL/TLS encryption scrambles your data, making it unreadable to anyone who might try to intercept it between your computer and the retailer’s server.
If, by any chance, you’re out of town for Black Friday weekend but you’re still keen on buying something that will arrive by the time you get home, we suggest you wait. Most people purchase stuff while they’re on a public WI-FI hotspot—like in a coffee shop, airport, or hotel—instead of making sure the internet provider is trustworthy. By doing this, you’re giving hackers the chance to have easy access to your credentials, because believe it or not, they’re super vigilant and “trained” for this “job.” Unsecured networks make it easy for criminals to execute “man-in-the-middle” attacks, where they position themselves between you and the connection point to steal data. If you must shop on public Wi-Fi, use a reputable Virtual Private Network (VPN) to encrypt your connection or use your phone’s personal hotspot instead.
Furthermore, to avoid Black Friday scams, take extra care to protect your PINs and other private information, especially when you’re in public. Be aware of “shoulder surfers” who may be looking over your shoulder to see you enter your card details or PIN. When possible, use secure payment methods like Apple Pay or Google Pay, which use tokenization to create a unique, one-time code for each transaction, meaning your actual card number is never exposed to the merchant.
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Watch out for all the social media ads
Another way to avoid Black Friday scams is to pay attention to the ads that pop into your social media newsfeed. Some of them might be accurate, while others are major fakes. To lure customers, fake businesses design eye-catching advertisements with discounted pricing that seems too good to be true—because it is. Be wary of ads with pixelated images, poor grammar, or comments that are suspiciously disabled, which prevents real customers from warning others.
However, if you click, you’ll be sent to a spam website that sells imitation goods or, even worse, a bogus company that collects your data. The goal of these sites isn’t always to sell you a shoddy product; sometimes, it’s simply to harvest your name, address, email, and payment information for identity theft or to sell on the dark web. Ads on social media should not be trusted implicitly. If you come across an offer that tickles your curiosity, find out more about the store by searching on Google rather than through the ad. Open a new browser tab and type the company’s name directly to find their official website.
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Don’t immediately react to fake delivery notification messages
Swindlers target you with a new kind of communication in this phishing scam, often called “smishing” (SMS phishing): a fake shipment notification from UPS, FedEx, or any other U.S. postal service. Typically, these scams are sent by text message and contain a link to a website where you may submit your personal information or pay taxes or a missing “fee” to “fix” the shipping problem. These messages prey on your expectations, as you’re likely awaiting several packages during this time. Red flags include generic greetings like “Dear Customer,” a sense of extreme urgency, and links that use URL shorteners like bit.ly. Never click these links. Instead, go directly to the official carrier’s website and enter the tracking number you received from the merchant to get legitimate updates.
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Update your software
Operating systems and programs must be kept up-to-date, so much so that major tech companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, and others have made it difficult for anyone to fall behind on updates. These updates are critical because they often contain patches for security vulnerabilities that have been discovered and are being actively exploited by hackers in the wild. An unpatched device is an open door for malware.
Generally speaking, you will be forced to install new versions of your software regularly, and it can even occur automatically in the background without your knowledge. It’s wise to ensure these automatic updates are enabled on your computer, smartphone, and tablet. This applies not just to your operating system but to all your applications as well, especially your web browser and any shopping or banking apps you use.
If you want to avoid Black Friday scams, make sure you have the most recent security patches installed on all of your devices to take full advantage of the built-in protection, such as firewalls and anti-malware features. If you have been putting off updating your computer or phone, do it before Black Friday. Think of it as putting new, stronger locks on your digital doors before the busiest and most dangerous shopping season begins.
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Protect all your accounts
On Black Friday, as always, make sure your accounts are secure and locked. Switch on two-factor authentication (2FA) on every account that supports it (most accounts from Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Twitter do, to start), and create strong, one-of-a-kind passwords for each of your accounts. 2FA adds a critical second layer of security by requiring not just your password (something you know) but also a code from your phone (something you have). For even better security, use an authenticator app like Google Authenticator or Authy instead of SMS-based codes, which can be vulnerable to SIM-swapping attacks. Using a specialized password manager or your web browser’s password management system can assist here by generating and securely storing complex passwords for you.
While it may be easy to quickly create a new shopping account using your “usual” password, all of your other accounts could become vulnerable if only one of them shares the same password. If a small, insecure online shop you used once gets breached, hackers will take your email and password combination and try it on your email, bank, and social media accounts in a process called “credential stuffing.” Aim for a strong one made up of more than 10 characters, including a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
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Pay attention to the sellers requesting wire transfers as payment method
Another major thing you have to do if you want to avoid Black Friday scams is to pay extremely close attention to the payment method. If they don’t use all the traditional payment methods like credit cards or PayPal, reconsider your purchase immediately. Legitimate e-commerce businesses invest in secure, standard payment processing. A lack of these options is a giant red flag.
If a merchant or retailer requests wire transfers for payment (such as through Western Union or Zelle), proceed with particular caution, as these payments are almost instantaneous and cannot be refunded once they are delivered. They are the equivalent of handing over cash. Similarly, be wary of sellers demanding payment in digital currency; because cryptocurrencies enable anonymous transactions that are untraceable and non-refundable, hackers like them. Finally, never pay a retailer with gift cards. Scammers love this method because once you provide the card number and PIN, the funds are gone for good. Gift cards should only ever be used on the official website of the company that issued them.
Your safest bet is always to use a credit card for online purchases. Credit cards offer the best consumer protections, thanks to regulations like the Fair Credit Billing Act, which limits your liability for fraudulent charges to a maximum of $50.
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Never click strange links
Avoid responding hastily if you get an unwanted text message from an unfamiliar number or a questionable email regarding a purchase you don’t recall placing. This is a classic phishing tactic. Avoid clicking on links sent to you by unknown senders. On a computer, you can often hover your mouse over a link to see the actual destination URL in the corner of your browser window before you click. If the destination looks suspicious or doesn’t match the purported sender, don’t click. Simply delete any questionable emails or texts if you are unsure about them. If you are worried about fraud on one of your accounts, close the suspicious message and log in to your account directly through the company’s official website or app to check for any alerts.
The same holds for those odd URLs that appear in social media advertisements or pop-up windows. I understand that you might find it tempting to do so, especially when a great deal is dangled in front of you, but it’s best to ignore them and shut them right away for your security and to prevent fraud. When in doubt, always take the slightly longer but much safer route of navigating to the website yourself.
Takeaway:
If you were unlucky enough to get scammed on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you should probably stop communicating with the scammer right away. Don’t engage further, as it will only open you up to more manipulation. Acting quickly is key to minimizing the damage.
First, avoid disagreeing with them; second, cancel any outstanding payments as soon as you can; and third, try contacting the bank if your phone app isn’t able to resolve the issue. Call the fraud department number on the back of your card immediately. They can freeze your card, block further transactions, and start the chargeback process. Try freezing your credit if this occurs after business hours and you are unable to get in touch with anyone. You should also change the passwords for any accounts that may have been compromised, especially your email and banking logins. Finally, report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to help authorities track these criminals and protect others.
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