21 November 2023

Avoid online shopping scams on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

4 minute read

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have begun as an American tradition, but it has now been fully embraced. The last weekend in November is now the UK’s biggest retail event of the year. In 2022, we spent an estimated £3.95 billion over this period, with almost half of sales being made online.

With such huge amounts being spent over a short time period, by eager shoppers rushing to grab a limited number of bargains, it’s no surprise that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are fertile ground for scammers. Figures from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) last year revealed that the average online shopper lost £1,000 with 19-25 year olds the age group most at risk.

The scams typically involve fraudsters posing as genuine sellers to trick their victims into opening an email, instant message or text message. This type of criminal activity, designed to steal sensitive personal data, is known as phishing. These scams are becoming more sophisticated and scenarios that have caught out online shoppers in recent years include:

Fake confirmation messages

You receive an order confirmation from an online retailer. There are no details in the email but there’s a link you can click to view your order. You’ve been buying online a lot since Black Friday began, so you click the link to see which order this refers to.

If you click the link, two things could potentially happen:

• You are directed to a clone site, which may look exactly like the legitimate online retailer site with a few small changes to the URL. You are then tricked into sharing personal information, like your name, password or bank details.

• You are directed to download a Word document and then ‘Enable’ something – such as ‘Enable Editing’, ‘Enable Content’ or ‘Enable Macros’ – all of which put malware (or malicious software) onto your system.

How to spot an online shopping scam:

•   You receive an unsolicited message urging instant action, by instant message, text or email. For example, it could be offering you a too good to be true limited time offer, telling you there’s a pressing issue with your order, or asking you to immediately confirm an order. Whatever the reason, when you open the email, it will encourage you to click a link or open an attachment as the next step.

•   You receive a message about a great shopping deal from a friend or colleague who wouldn’t normally share messages like this.

•   You click a link and are taken to a website where you are encouraged to share personal information.

•   You open a Word attachment and are encouraged to ‘enable’ something on your computer.

How to prevent an online shopping scam:

•   Never click a link or open an attachment in an unsolicited message. If you want to find bargains, search for them yourself.

•   Never provide your personal information or sensitive banking details

•   Always check website addresses. Clone sites will have very slight differences in spelling from the genuine site name.

•   Ask questions before you buy, especially if it is an expensive item. If the seller is trying to rush you into paying but is in no hurry to provide details about the item, it could be a scam.

How to report an online shopping scam

• Report the scam to Action Fraud, the reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: