How to avoid falling for a Black Friday scam

Last year, National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) data revealed that nearly £13m was lost during the Christmas shopping period to online shopping and auction scams. 

Between November 2023 and January 2024, the NFIB received 16,031 reports from online shopping and auction scam victims, with total losses of £12.9m. The NIFB analyses data from Action Fraud's reports, it also sends reports to local police forces for investigation and can take down bank accounts, websites and phone numbers used by fraudsters.

Purchase fraud, where scam victims are deceived into buying goods that don't exist, is one of the most common types of fraud in the UK. It poses such a threat that TSB has warned that from January to October this year, purchase fraud accounted for more than half of all fraud cases at the bank. 

TSB also found that Facebook accounted for two thirds of all purchase fraud losses and Instagram accounted for one in six.

A bogus offer isn't anything new, but the hype of the Black Friday and Christmas sales period and all the advertising that's pumped out at this time of year allows scammers to disguise their traps.

Read on to discover the latest Black Friday scams and how you can spot one.

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Black Friday scams

The scams we've seen so far include dodgy emails promoting a 'Black Friday Mystery Box' full of 'gadgets, smart devices and surprise gifts' and a new PlayStation 5 sold as part of a 'Black Friday Deal'. 

Brands selling advent calendars are commonly impersonated during the Black Friday and Christmas shopping season. One scam advert on Facebook and Instagram promoted The Perfume Shop's advent calendar for just £27.86 when it should be retailing at around £85. The Perfume Shop's official website also states that the advent calendar has sold out for the year.

Another scam advert on Facebook and Instagram impersonated Amazon and claimed to offer Black Friday deals with 'massive discounts'. The advert led to a suspicious shopping website that advertised items at low discounted prices.

• Follow the Which? scams tracker to stay up to date on the latest scams in circulation.

How to spot and avoid a scam deal

Last year, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned that AI technology including large language models – where you type a prompt to a chatbot – could pose a new online shopping threat.

While we’ve long relied on poor spelling and grammar to spot scams, the NCSC warns that AI could create more polished communication to phish for your personal or financial information or download malware to your device.

Which? tested AI chatbots (ChatGPT and Bard) to see if this technology could create convincing scam messages. We found they could, which potentially arms scammers with yet more tools to create more convincing scam emails, fake adverts, and bogus websites.

With bargain deals bombarding your inbox and social media feeds, it can be hard to weed out the legitimate offers from the scams. 

Be additionally cautious with Black Friday deal emails landing in your inbox – double-check the sender's details and inspect all links before you click on them. Rather than following the link from the email, consider visiting the retailer's website directly as this will help you avoid clicking on any malicious links. 

Classic signs that a Black Friday deal may be a scam are:

• Unrealistically low prices, so always check that the price of the item is consistent with other websites.
• Being promoted on a recently created website without a privacy policy, postal address or an ‘about us’ page. Use a domain checker like who.is to check when the website was created, a newly created website should ring alarm bells.
• Being posted from a newly created social media account.
• Only allowing you to pay via bank transfer which offers very limited protection in the event of a scam, so opt for a credit or debit card or PayPal instead.
• Bad reviews can be a giveaway, but make sure you know the signs of a fake review.
• An impersonated URL – check that the website URL is that of the official brand. It will only have one official website.

Reporting a scam

You can use in-platform reporting tools to report scam ads and posts on social media.

Dodgy websites can be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre.

Scam emails can be forwarded to report@phishing.gov.uk. 

If you’re the victim of a scam, call your bank immediately using the number on the back of your bank card and report it to Action Fraud or call the police on 101 if you’re in Scotland.