Black Friday, Cyber Monday online scams: What to look out for while shopping this season

Brenno Carillo, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Updated ·3 min read

Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer scores of opportunities to save on holiday gifts or even personal shopping.

But big sales could also mean bad actors are prowling the internet, trying to lure consumers into falling for one of their scams.

Over the past five years, Americans have lost about $27.6 billion to online scams. Last year saw a record loss of $10.3 billion.

In 2022, Florida was second only to California in the amount of money lost to online scams with a total of $844 million.

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The figures were reported in a recent study conducted by Social Catfish — a company that uses “public information, coupled with proprietary technology to allow you to find lost connections, verify online relationships to keep you protected, and also help you manage what others see online,” according to its website.

This year's holiday season is expected to see more than $220 billion in online shopping sales, which would be a record, according to Social Catfish, making "consumers likely to lose even more money to scams unless they learn how to avoid them."

So how are these scammers finding ways to steal from people online?

Here are some Black Friday and Cyber Monday scams to look out for, according to Social Catfish:

Fake stores scam

Social media is a prime field for scammers to capture their victims’ attention.

One of their tactics is fabricating and advertising “incredible deals” from well-known stores.

But “once you click the link, it takes you to a look-a-like website of a major brand,” according to Social Catfish. “Any gifts purchased will never arrive.”

The way scammers mask the brand’s website is by changing or including a letter in the URL, which is what consumers should check for before buying on that website.

Fake gift cards

One of the most common holiday gifts, gift cards, are often a target for scammers.

“People can save money by purchasing gift cards from resale sites,” according to Social Catfish. “However, scammers are on these sites selling gift cards that arrive with no balance.”

For a monthly fee, the company offers its “reverse search” tools for customers to locate an online seller’s background to ensure their authenticity.

Fake shopping notifications

Many online shoppers rely on their delivery services to track their purchase’s shipment status.

“Scammers are capitalizing on the increased number of packages delivered during the holidays by emailing or texting a delivery notification with a ‘tracking link,’” according to Social Catfish. “This is a phishing link used for identity theft.”

Instead of clicking on these notification links (which often come via email and text messages), customers should only track packages on the official UPS, USPS, FedEx or other delivery service websites.

Which apps are most popular for scams?

A Social Catfish poll of 5,500 scam victims pointed to the apps and websites where they mostly happen.

They included Facebook, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, Instagram and Plenty of Fish.

Which states in America had the most scams in 2022?

As mentioned, Florida placed second last year with $844 million lost in scams, behind California’s $2.01 billion.

The next eight states on the list were:

  • New York – $777 million.

  • Texas – $763 million.

  • Georgia – $322 million.

  • New Jersey – $284 million.

  • Illinois – $266 million.

  • Pennsylvania – $250 million.

  • Alabama – $247 million.

  • Arizona – $241 million.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Holiday shopping scams and how to protect yourself this season