Shoppers are being warned to be on high alert for scams as the Christmas shopping season gets under way this Black Friday, November 25.
Consumers in the UK spent a massive £4.75bn over Black Friday weekend last year, according to Finder.com, and although shopping is expected to ease of a little bit this year due to the cost of living crisis, retailers are still anticipating billions to be spent in the sales.
The number of reported purchase scams rose by 34% immediately after Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year, according to Barclays Bank data, with an average of £1,072 lost to scammers. And as research from the bank shows that almost nine in 10 Britons are relying on Black Friday to do some or all of their Christmas shopping this year, Black Friday gives scammers a golden opportunity to con people out of their hard-earned money.
Phishing emails are one of the oldest tricks in the book, but they still work and millions are sent out by scammers every single day. A phishing email is where scammers pose as a genuine retailer, company, organisation, or bank in an attempt to steal people’s personal information and bank details.
Read more: From ads to phishing - seven signs to look out for that show a website may be a scam
Here are the five most common scams to keep an eye out for:
1. Black Friday promotions
A lot of major retailers promote their Black Friday discounts via email and this gives scammers the perfect opportunity to send out phishing emails that don’t look suspicious or out of place.
How does the scam work?
Scammers will send out phishing emails that advertise Black Friday discounts, usually mimicking large companies such as Amazon or Currys because they have millions of customers and will have a genuine Black Friday sale on. The scammers create a fake email address so it looks real when it pops up in people’s mail boxes, and they will copy the format of genuine emails sent out from the retailer. The email will contain a link to the ‘retailer’s’ website to click if you want to access the sale. However this will take you to a bogus website to steal your information.
How to avoid
Apply a common sense approach to sales and discounts - you should be wary of emails offering something at a big discount if it's for sale everywhere else at a similar price. One tell-tale sign that an email is a scam is the email sender's email address. Look for random numbers, letters or symbols that look suspicious. Or the email might come come from a completely random email address and the scammers just spoof the display name. Phishing emails are getting more difficult to detect, but bad formatting and spelling/grammar is also usually a big give away.
2. 'There is a problem with your delivery’ message
Online shopping numbers go through the roof over the Black Friday weekend and the festive season, and most households will have something due for delivery over this time of year, so they might fall for a message telling them there is a problem.. Scammers know this tactic will work around Black Friday and Christmas as people may lose track of what they’ve got on order and they may worry about a gift not turning up.
How does this scam work?
Scammers pose as a well-known delivery service, like Royal Mail or DPD, and send out emails to say that there’s a problem with your delivery. There will be a link to click to ‘rearrange your delivery’ and maybe a threat that your item will be sent back to the retailer if you don’t act quickly. The link will take you to a malicious website that looks like the genuine site of the company they’re spoofing, which will capture your personal information so they can steal your identity and maybe also ask you to pay for your delivery to be rearranged.
How to avoid
If you receive an email that says there is a problem with your delivery and you know you have some deliveries due, then go to the courier’s website through your search engine. Then find your tracking number through the website that you ordered from and enter this on the courier’s tracking portal. This will tell you whether there are any delivery problems.
3. Facebook and Instagram messages
Scammers hack into Facebook and Instagram accounts and send out hundreds of messages to the hacked users’ followers and friends or family.
How does this scam work?
Scammers will pretend to be the person they have hacked, and send out links to fake retail websites which are supposedly offering the best deals, gift cards or vouchers. The scammer will claim that they’ve just used the website or purchased a gift card. The link takes you to malicious website which has purely been designed to steal you information. If you try to purchase items, the scammers will disappear with your bank details and the items that you ordered will never arrive.
How to avoid
Consider who has sent you the message and if it’s somebody that you never speak to online and this message appears out of the blue, proceed with caution. If it’s somebody that you know well then also look at how the message is worded and whether this is normal for how you usually speak to each other. If you receive a message like this from anyone then you should always contact them via an alternative method to check whether it’s genuine.
4. Fake Black Friday retailers
Some criminals will set up entirely fake and malicious retail websites which advertise products that simply don’t exist.
How this scam works
The fraudsters steal images and descriptions from genuine retailers but advertise the products at a much cheaper price, usually using social media and phishing emails to advertise their website and the promotions. If you order a product from one of these website, then the scammers will disappear with your personal information and bank details. The items you ordered will either never arrive or you will be sent something cheap and/or broken.
How to avoid
If you’re looking to buy particular brands and products this Black Friday then make sure you’re only looking at the brand’s genuine website, or a well-known trusted stockist like Amazon or Argos. Only shop on websites with a padlock symbol in the address bar and a URL that starts with HTTPS. This means that it’s a safe and secure website and any information that you enter will be encrypted and therefore unreadable by anyone trying to intercept it. If you also shop with a credit card, this means that you’ll have extra protection if things do go wrong.
5. Black Friday vouchers and gift cards
This phishing scam can come via email, text or social media message and it involves scammers offering deals on gift cards or vouchers for well-known retailers who are running Black Friday sales.
How this scam works
Scammers send a link to a website, which has been designed to look very similar to the retailer’s site, where you can claim your pre-loaded gift cards or vouchers. They may just be advertising the gift cards for sale or they may run a survey or competition for you to win them. The survey or competition will ask for all of your personal details and then the scammers will capture this to either steal your identity or use it to try and log into your bank account.
How to avoid
It’s important to be cautious of anything that is sent to you via an unsolicited email or message – you need to be careful about everything that’s coming into your inbox at this time of year. Don’t click on any links that have been sent to you and if you’re interested in something, access it via your search engine instead.
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