Black Friday Sale 2025: Black Friday is an annual shopping event that traditionally marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. It takes place on the Friday following Thanksgiving in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Thanks to mouth-watering discounts, Black Friday has become an equally popular event in India, with the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and numerous e-commerce websites and offline outlets offering lucrative discounts.
While the deals are tempting, shoppers must remain vigilant as scammers use this time to target potential victims. Cybersecurity experts are urging people to be extra cautious and protect their personal and financial information.
Here are some of the Black Friday scams that you should be on the lookout for:
Social Media Scams
One of the most common Black Friday scams is the mushrooming of fake stores that closely mimic the well-known retailers. Using bogus trust badges, popular website layouts replete with holiday theme layouts and countdown clocks, these websites often look almost indistinguishable from the original ones.
These sites harvest payment and personal information when a customer attempts to complete a transaction, attracted by the unusually heavy discount items.
Consumers are advised to remain cautious of:
- Unrealistic discounts of 70-90 per cent.
- Flashy countdown timers.
- Misspelt or unusual URLs.
- Fake trust seals.
- Check out pages that redirect to unfamiliar domains.
- Generic layouts repeated across different “stores”.
- Absence of verified customer support information.
Phishing Emails
Scammers use fake retailer giveaways and surveys to steal sensitive information. Never interact with suspicious links and always verify offers by navigating directly to the retailer’s official website. As a thumb rule, never click on any link, unless you are completely sure it redirects to a trusted website.
Delivery Scams
Delivery scams at this time of year are also increasing as people place orders online. The malicious actors will spoof major courier companies and trick people into giving away their personal credentials.
The cybercriminals will approach the victim and claim that their password has been compromised or they just want them to change their password because they have had a cyberattack.
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AI Videos
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has witnessed a meteoric rise in the last few years. With the new advanced models, scammers can easily create highly convincing Black Friday shopping scams on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
These videos promote fake deals or products to trick shoppers into visiting fraudulent websites that steal personal and financial information. Using the combination of dark web and AI, these scammers can attack more people than they can actually do through phishing attacks, which are much more targeted attacks.
