Between gift shopping, charitable donations and gearing up to host or travel for the holidays, many Americans will be spending a lot of money over the next couple of months.
All that money being spent over the holidays brings scammers out of the woodworks as they try to steal your cash, your credit card information and other sensitive data. And the techniques fraudsters use are getting more and more sophisticated every year.
As the biggest sales event of the year rolls around, make sure you’re taking advantage of legitimate Black Friday deals and not handing your hard-earned money over to a fraudster. To do that, brush up on how some of the most common Black Friday scams work and the red flags to watch for so you don’t fall into these traps.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more – straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice – straight to your e-mail.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
1. Fake Black Friday deals
Your inbox is probably already seeing a steady stream of Black Friday deal announcements and offers from your favorite brands. Scammers will be using all the frenzy and excitement to try to steal your money. Here’s how it works:
- You get an email from what looks like a brand you like, offering a can’t-miss Black Friday deal.
- You click through the link in the email to shop the deals on that brand’s website.
- The website looks identical to the real thing, but it’s actually a fake operated by scammers.
- When you go to check out, you often won’t have the option to pay by credit card. Instead, it will request a bank transfer or even cryptocurrency payment.
How to avoid this scam
- Check the URL. Instead of “Amazon,” you might notice that the URL actually reads “Amaz0n” (with a zero), for example. There will often be something slightly off about it.
- You can also look at the website itself more closely. Does it have a privacy policy? Does the business have a mailing address? Is there an “about us” page?
- Compare the deal to other retailers. If the website is promising the latest Apple AirPods Pro 3 for $100, but no other retailer has a deal lower than $200, that’s a red flag.
- If you can’t use a credit card, don’t make the purchase. When paying with a credit card, you enjoy some built-in fraud protection – including the option to call up your bank and request a charge back if it turns out the deal was a scam. When you transfer cash from your bank, use a payment app like Zelle or pay with crypto, you don’t have those same protections.
2. Fake order confirmations
This one can come via email or text. Scammers will send you what looks like a legitimate order confirmation, but clicking the link will either install malware on your device or take you to a phishing site. Here’s how it works:
- You get an order confirmation via email or text.
- If it looks like an order you recently placed, you might mistake it for a legitimate confirmation and use the link inside to track the shipping progress.
- If it looks like something you never ordered, you might click through the link to investigate or cancel the order.
- In a malware attack, clicking the link is all it takes to install the malware on your device, which will then be able to scrape that device for sensitive information like passwords or financial data.
- In a phishing attack, clicking the link takes you to a webpage that asks for your personal information — often under the guise of helping you track (or cancel) the order.
How to avoid this scam
- Check the email address of the sender. Often, the email will be from a public domain (like gmail rather than Amazon). If not, the domain might be either misspelled or contain extra words. For example, Amazon would be Amaz0n (with a zero) or it might be “Amazoncustomerservice.com” instead of just “Amazon.com.”
- Look for threats or pressure tactics. A real order confirmation will never threaten you with things like “click here to avoid order cancellation” or “your order will be deleted if you don’t confirm your information.”
- Keep track of all your holiday purchases, perhaps by writing a list with order numbers, tracking numbers and other key details. If you get a confirmation that looks like it could be real, compare the order number or tracking number against the actual order you think it might be referring to. If they don’t match up, report the sender as spam.
3. The gift card scam
You get an email or text claiming a friend or family member sent you a gift card. Like the order confirmation scam, clicking through the link will either take you to a phishing page or immediately install malware on your device.
How to avoid this scam
- If the message includes a friend or family member’s name, reach out to that person directly to ask if they did, in fact, send you a gift card. Do not reply to the gift card message or click on any links in the meantime.
- If no name is included, that’s suspicious on its own. But, you can confirm by reaching out to all of your friends and family who tend to send you gifts around the holidays to find out if any of them sent a gift card.
- If nobody you know says they’ve sent you a gift card, report the phone number or email address as spam.
Plenty of retailers offer downloadable apps that you can install on your phone. It’s actually become one of the more annoying tech intrusions. But it’s important to make sure the app you’re downloading is actually the one that belongs to that retailer. Otherwise, you could be walking into a scam.
Counterfeit apps can look surprisingly similar to the real deal. The logo and other details might look just like that of the popular retailer it’s impersonating. When you download it, you’re actually downloading malware or spyware.
In some cases, the app prompts you to log in, browse what look like real deals and even checkout with your financial information. Now, the scammer has your real login credentials and potentially stole other sensitive information from you as well.
How to avoid this scam
- Check the number of downloads and reviews. A popular brand or major platform like Amazon or Walmart will have millions of downloads and a substantial review history on its app. The fake version, on the other hand, might only have a few thousand downloads and even fewer reviews.
- Check the developer’s name. The developer of Walmart’s app will be Walmart (spelled correctly). A scammer will either use a slightly misspelled version of the brand they’re impersonating or a generic name like “Best Shopping Deals.”
- Just don’t download the app. Sometimes, retailers offer special perks for downloading their apps. There are some Walmart+ perks that you can only use if you have the app, for example. But, if you don’t need those specific perks or you’ve been fine so far without them, just skip the app. At best, it’s taking up space on your phone. At worst, it’s a counterfeit app stealing your data.
Shop smart this holiday season
The safest way to shop on Black Friday or any time of year is to be cautious. Stick to retailers you know and trust. Navigate to their websites directly rather than by clicking through links you get in emails or texts.
Above all, remember that Black Friday deals can be good — but if a particular deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.