How to avoid fake Black Friday deals

The hype around Black Friday creates the impression that every offer is worth trampling over fellow shoppers to get to, with retailers slashing prices to historically low levels for one day only.

But Which? research has found that there's no need to rush, as genuinely good deals are very rare.

Are Black Friday deals real?

We've dug deep into the pricing history of nearly 200 Black Friday deals to find out how many were cheaper or the same price at other times of the year. 

We looked at 175 deals on popular products advertised by some of the biggest retailers during 2024’s Black Friday sales and checked their pricing history six months before and six months after the day itself. 

We’ve been running this investigation annually for several years now. In the latest investigation, we found that:

• 100% of products were cheaper or the same price in the six months either side of the sale day when compared to their Black Friday price. 
• Compared to the ‘sales period’ ( 15 Nov-12 Dec 2024) 83% of products were cheaper or equal in price on at least one occasion during the year, and 42% of products were cheaper at least once. 
• 35% of products were cheaper after the sale period, and 68% were equal in price or cheaper – so waiting until after the event won’t mean you miss out.

So before you rush into impulse-buying a discounted coffee machine or TV, read on for our advice on how to work out if a deal is real.

• Find out more: When is Black Friday?

How to check if a Black Friday deal is fake: 5 tips

1. Check the price of the product across multiple websites

You might spot more than one shop selling a product at a similar price, but only one claiming that the price is a special offer.

For example, if four shops are selling the same washing machine for £250, but only one trumpets it as a special offer 'now £250, was £300', it's a good indicator that the price is not a particularly special deal.

Of course, if you're happy to pay £250 for that particular washing machine, that's fine. But don't feel pressured into buying while it's supposedly a bargain.

2. Check the price history

Use our reviews app to make a shortlist of the products you want to look out for in the Black Friday sales, then visit websites such as Pricerunner, PriceSpy and CamelCamelCamel (Amazon only) to find out their price history. 

This will help you know whether Black Friday prices are genuinely worth getting excited about.

• Find out more: Top 15 shopping tips for Black Friday

3. Be wary of 'was' prices

Claims such as 'was £100, now £50' are abundant on Black Friday. But don't let these 'anchor prices' mislead you. 

Retailers shout about savings as a way of influencing customers – often highlighting them in red to grab your attention. But our investigations have shown that the savings may not be as good as they appear. 

We analysed the pricing history of 1,617 TVs with was/now pricing at four major tech retailers between Feb 2024 and Feb 2025, and found a slew of dodgy TV deals. Of these, 56% had at least one intervening price between the sale price and the advertised 'was' price, and some had many more. This could mean that price-reduction claims give a false impression of the savings, as the 'was' price wasn't the most recent previous price. 

For example, the LG OLED65B46LA, 65-inch, LED, 4K UHD, Smart TV was selling at Very in November for £1,499. Its ‘was’ price was shown as £2,499, so you might think you were getting a 40% saving, which would be great... But it had also been for sale at seven different prices since that ‘was’ price – all lower than £2,499, so the real saving is less impressive.

Check against other shops' prices to try to work out the true value of the item you're buying.

Find out more: how to get the best price when shopping online 

4. Don't focus on the RRP

In our 2024 Black Friday investigation, all the deals we found at Amazon, and some at AO.com, used a recommended retail price (RRP) to show the saving. 

On the face of it, these look much the same as ‘was’ prices – but there’s a crucial difference. The item doesn’t ever have to have been sold at the RRP by that store. RRPs are simply the price the manufacturer suggests the product be sold for.

For example, Amazon advertised the Samsung Series 5+ heat pump tumble dryer for £629.99 on Black Friday last year, setting it against its RRP of £789.99 – a supposed saving of £160. But it hadn’t actually been sold at £789.99 by Amazon in the entire 12 months prior. In fact, the highest price it had reached in that period was £719.

When we surveyed members of the public, only 62% knew what RRP stood for and only 55% knew what it meant. Some 18% incorrectly thought it meant the retailer must have sold the item at that price previously.

On the face of it, 'was/now' prices appear more straightforward. But when we showed an example of a was/now deal to consumers, 31% assumed the higher price was offered right before the promotion. 

This doesn’t have to be the case – in some of the deals we looked at, the ‘was’ prices dated from as far back as 11 months earlier.

Some deals were advertised in even more opaque ways. At Very, we found prices with a strikethrough simply followed by a claimed saving, giving shoppers no information about what the higher figure meant.

5. Let Which? do the hard work for you

Our experts spend hours scouring deals at the UK's biggest retailers to handpick the very best ones. Check out our recommendations:

• Best air fryer deals
• Best broadband deals
  
• Best fridge freezer deals
• Best iPad and tablet deals
• Best iPhone deals
• Best laptop deals
• Best mattress deals
• Best mobile phone and Sim-only deals
• Best TV deals
• Best vacuum cleaner deals
• Best washing machine deals

Or if you have a particular retailer in mind, check out our pick of the best Amazon Black Friday deals, best Currys Black Friday deals and best John Lewis Black Friday deals.