Every year, cybercriminals launch new scams around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Learn how to recognize fake sales, phishing emails, and e-commerce fraud — and how Digital Forensics Corp. helps victims stay protected.
In the modern-day economy, holiday shopping has shifted from a physical tradition to a digital necessity. With inflation squeezing household budgets and salaries struggling to keep pace with rising prices, finding a significant discount during seasonal sales isn’t just a win; it’s a financial necessity. However, this same hunt for a bargain is exactly what puts your data at risk for Black Friday scams.
Black Friday scams target our collective need for affordability by creating hyper-realistic clones of the brands we trust, offering “too-good-to-be-true” prices that turn a celebratory shopping moment into a financial nightmare. To protect yourself, you must prioritize verification over speed, ensuring that every “limited time offer” comes from a legitimate domain before you ever enter your payment details.
If you find yourself in the crosshairs of a scammer, please understand that these operations are professionally engineered to deceive. You’ve done nothing wrong, but you need to take action to protect yourself. Continue reading to learn more about common Black Friday scams, how to identify the warning signs of a fraudulent storefront, and what legal actions to take if you fall prey to a holiday shopping scam.
Why Black Friday and Cyber Monday Are Prime Targets for Scammers
Fraud doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it follows the money. During the late-November period, the volume of online transactions reaches such a fever pitch that even the most advanced banking algorithms can struggle to distinguish between a legitimate holiday spree and a criminal siphon.
This noise is exactly what scammers look for. When a person is making ten purchases in an hour, a single fraudulent $40 “shipping fee” often goes completely unnoticed until the January bank statement arrives.
The surge in Black Friday scams is also fueled by the urgency trap. Legitimate retailers have spent decades training us to act fast or lose out. Scammers simply hijack this existing behavior. They create “flash sales” that expire in minutes, pressuring you to skip the due diligence of checking the URL or reading reviews.
Furthermore, we are seeing a massive increase in Cyber Monday scams targeting those who missed the Friday rush. As the weekend winds down, shoppers become more desperate to find remaining stock, making them prime targets for ghost inventory scams.
One in three Americans falls victim to online scams during the holiday season. Of these, over half lose money as a result, with one in ten losing over $1,000. This isn’t just a trend; it’s an evolving landscape of financial warfare.
Common Black Friday and Cyber Monday Scams to Watch Out For
Scammers are creatures of habit who use a very specific framework of deception. While the products they offer change, the underlying schemes usually fall into a few repeatable models. If you understand these structures, you can spot the trap before you step into it.
Fake Online Stores and Discount Websites
The spoofed storefront is perhaps the most dangerous Black Friday online shopping threat today. These are not just amateurish pages anymore. Scammers now use high-end templates, stolen brand assets, and even real-time “customer support” bots to look legitimate. They often run aggressive ads on social media, leading you to a page that looks exactly like your favorite store’s.
Once you “buy” an item, one of two things happens: either you receive a cheap counterfeit item that looks nothing like the photo, or—more likely—you receive nothing at all. The site then disappears within 72 hours, leaving no trail for you to follow. In a recent case we investigated, a fake “boutique” site defrauded over 500 people in a single weekend by offering a high-end coffee machine at half price.
Phishing Scams and Email Fraud
The Black Friday phishing scams of 2024 and 2025 have become incredibly sophisticated, often using smishing (SMS phishing). You might receive a text that says: “Your Black Friday order #4920 has a delivery issue. Update your address here to avoid return to sender.” Because so many of us are actually expecting packages during this time, we click the link without thinking.
This link doesn’t just ask for your address; it asks for a “re-delivery fee” of $1.99. This tiny amount is just a test to see if your card is active and to capture your full CVV and expiration date. Once they have that, they drain the account with high-value purchases in the middle of the night. Cyber Monday fraud often uses an “expired payment” tactic, scaring you into re-entering your details on a fake portal to “save” your discounted order.
Counterfeit Products and Reseller Fraud
Some Black Friday sales scams focus on the gray market. Scammers will set up shop on legitimate third-party platforms like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or specialized sneaker apps. They offer “pre-owned” or “open box” items at a deep discount. They might even send you a video of the product to build trust.
However, they will insist that you pay outside the platform’s protected system—asking for “Friends and Family” transfers on PayPal or direct wire transfers. Once the money leaves your account, the “seller” blocks you. For example, we handled a case in which a victim lost $2,400 trying to buy a discounted high-end GPU through a reseller who used a stolen ID to verify the transaction.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Fraud Targeting Businesses
While most of the media coverage focuses on individual shoppers, the reality is that businesses are the silent, primary targets of Black Friday fraud. For a retailer, the holiday season is a high-stakes balancing act: they must handle a massive increase in traffic while maintaining a security perimeter that is constantly being poked and prodded by automated scripts and professional hackers.
One of the most damaging Black Friday threats is a form of e-commerce fraud attack known as card cracking. This is where bots use a merchant’s checkout page to test thousands of stolen credit card numbers to see which ones are still active. To the business, it looks like a spike in traffic; to the criminal, it’s a free laboratory for financial theft. This often leads to a wave of chargebacks in January, which can jeopardize a small business’s standing with payment processors.
Furthermore, we see a rise in inventory denial of service (DoS) attacks. Competitors or malicious actors use bots to add thousands of items to carts without checking out. This ties up the inventory, making it appear to be sold out to legitimate customers. By the time the business realizes the carts are fake, the shopping window has closed.
Implementing Cyber Monday fraud prevention isn’t just a consumer necessity; it’s a survival requirement for the digital storefront. Businesses must deploy rate-limiting, bot detection, and multi-factor authentication for their internal systems to prevent account takeover (ATO) fraud, where scammers use leaked employee credentials to issue themselves refunds or steal customer databases.
Black Friday Travel and Gift Card Scams
As we move deeper into the holiday season, the focus often shifts from physical goods to experiences and gifts. This transition can lead to Black Friday travel scams, a particularly cruel category because it targets people’s desire to visit family. These scams often mimic major airlines or hotel booking sites like Expedia or Airbnb.
The setup is usually a “flash sale” on social media offering 60% off international flights. When you click, you are taken to a high-quality clone of a booking engine. You enter your passport details and payment information, giving the scammer everything they need for identity theft. You may even receive a professional-looking “e-ticket.” However, when you show up at the terminal, the airline has no record of your booking.
Gift cards are another major component of Black Friday scams. Scammers may sell “discounted” gift cards on secondary marketplaces that were purchased with stolen credit cards. When the original victim reports the fraud, the card is deactivated, leaving the second buyer with a worthless piece of plastic. We also see physical tampering in stores, where scammers scan the codes off cards on the rack, then drain the balance immediately after activation.
How to Avoid Black Friday and Cyber Monday Scams
In our experience at DFC, the best defense is never a single piece of software; it is a shift in mindset. To effectively avoid Black Friday shopping scams, you must learn to “pause” when the internet tells you to “rush.” Deception relies on bypassing your critical thinking through artificial pressure.
The following is our expert-recommended protocol for how to avoid Black Friday scams and ensure a secure Cyber Monday fraud prevention strategy.
Behavior-Based Protection: How to Avoid Online Shopping Scams
- Verify the domain: Check every letter in the URL. Scammers use “homoglyphs”—characters that look like others (e.g., replacing ‘o’ with ‘0’). If the site ends in .net or .biz instead of .com for a major retailer, leave immediately.
- Avoid direct payment requests: If a seller asks you to pay via Zelle, Venmo, CashApp, or cryptocurrency, it’s almost certainly a scam. These are peer-to-peer tools intended for people who know each other, not for commercial transactions.
- Use secure shopping platforms: A padlock icon (HTTPS) only means the connection is encrypted. Scammers may fraudulently obtain security certificates. Look for a physical address and a verified phone number to confirm.
- Be cautious of “too-good-to-be-true” offers: If every other store is selling a TV for $800, but only one has it listed for $250, you likely aren’t looking at a deal. Instead, you’ve probably come across a bait-and-switch or a data-harvesting trap.
- Use virtual cards: Many banking apps allow you to create “single-use” virtual credit cards. Use these for holiday shopping so that even if the site is a scam, that specific card number becomes useless the moment the transaction is over.
- Exercise caution with customer reviews: While reviews can help identify poor deals, be aware that fake reviews exist. Be suspicious if a site has very few reviews.
- Act quickly if you suspect a scam: If you believe you’ve been a victim of fraud, immediately contact your bank and request them to stop the payment. While banks aren’t typically liable for reimbursing customers tricked into making payments, prompt action is crucial. You should also report the fraud to the relevant authorities.
Platform-Based Risks: How to Avoid Black Friday & Cyber Monday Scams Across Online Platforms
- Recognize Phishing Emails: These deceptive emails are designed to trick you into divulging personal information. Scrutinize emails carefully and avoid clicking on any embedded links.
- Be Cautious of “Click and Receive” Scams: Be wary of emails urging you to click a link and enter your details to modify a delivery. This can be a tactic used by criminals to fraudulently obtain your personal information.
- Be Skeptical of WhatsApp Messages Offering Freebies: Even if a message promising gift cards appears to come from a friend, it could be a scam. Clicking on such links can allow fraudsters to collect your personal data and track your device.
- Don’t Fall for False Freebies on Facebook: Cybercriminals create enticing offers on social media platforms. Clicking on the provided links often leads to requests for personal information that can be used for fraudulent purposes.
- Avoid Shopping on Public Wi-Fi: Criminals can establish fake Wi-Fi hotspots to intercept your data. Stick to secure, private networks for online shopping.
- Follow eBay’s Rules: When shopping on eBay, always pay using PayPal. This offers a money-back guarantee in many cases. Paying via bank transfer forfeits this protection. You might encounter a fake product scam even on reputable platforms, so PayPal adds a layer of security.
Warning Signs of Black Friday and Cyber Monday Scam
Recognizing a Black Friday scam warning sign before you commit your financial data is the difference between a successful holiday and a month spent on the phone with fraud departments. At DFC, we teach our clients to look for the small imperfections that prove a website or offer was assembled in haste by a criminal.
It’s important to recognize the target demographic of Black Friday scams: the deal-seeker. If you are looking at a product that is sold out globally, but a random website claims to have 500 units in stock at a 60% discount, you are being targeted. Scammers use ghost inventory to bait people who are frustrated by legitimate out-of-stock messages.
Other clear warning signs include:
- Payment barriers. Any site that insists on payment via cryptocurrency or “gift card balance” is a fraud. These methods are chosen because they lack the “chargeback” infrastructure of the modern banking system.
- Grammatical errors. While high-end scams are polished, many international operations still fail at the details. Look for awkward phrasing like “Best Savings of Deals” or “Click for Order Success.”
- Missing contact data. A real business wants you to be able to find them. If a site lacks a physical address, a privacy policy, or a functional “Terms of Service” page, it’s a shell.
- Recent creation. Use a “WhoIs” lookup tool to see when the domain was registered. If a “long-standing” retail brand’s website was registered two weeks ago, it is probably a scam.
Real Examples of Black Friday Cyber Scams
To understand the gravity of Black Friday fraud, we only need to look at the data from recent years. In 2023, threat intelligence company EclecticIQ uncovered a phishing campaign that used fabricated websites with fraudulent “Trusted Store” badges to lure in shoppers looking for deals. EclecticIQ identified at least 8,000 fraudulent websites posing as popular brands like Wayfair, IKEA, and The North Face.
Another major instance of Black Friday cyber scams involved ghost store operators targeting Australian shoppers. In 2025, Guardian Australia identified several of these stores advertising on online platforms such as Facebook and Shopify. One example involved a fraudulent makeup retailer named “Legacare,” which ran an advertising campaign that appeared to display an Australian Women’s Weekly article promoting the brand. However, such an article did not exist, and Legacare was not a registered company in Australia. In fact, the domain name was less than a year old at the time of reporting.
Consumers are not the only ones targeted by Black Friday scams. In 2024, cybercriminals breached the systems of IKEA franchise company Fourlis Group just two days before one of the biggest shopping and trading days of the year. The intrusion is estimated to have lasted over two weeks, significantly impacting operations at a “critical commercial period.” While Fourlis Group was able to resolve the ransomware attack without paying the criminals, the disruption cost the firm over $17 million.
What to Do If You Fall Victim to a Black Friday Scam
If you realize you have been caught in a Black Friday or Cyber Monday scam trap, you must act with forensic precision. Panic leads to mistakes; coordinated action leads to recovery.
- Cut all contact. Cease all communication with the “seller.” Do not tell them you know they are a scammer; this only gives them time to move your funds or delete their digital footprint.
- Contact your bank immediately. Call the fraud department. Ask for a “chargeback” (if using a credit card) or a “fraudulent transaction report.” Mention that you have been a victim of an online trading scam or retail fraud.
- Secure your identity. If you provided a password, change it everywhere. If you provided your Social Security number or passport details, place a “Credit Freeze” with major bureaus like Experian or Equifax.
- Preserve the evidence. Do not delete the emails or texts. Save the URL of the fake site. Take screenshots of the “order confirmation” and any chat logs. This documentation is vital for the reporting process.
- Report to the authorities. In the USA, file a report with the FBI’s IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center). This helps law enforcement track and shut down the servers hosting these scams.
How Digital Forensics Corp. Protects You from Black Friday Fraud
The aftermath of Black Friday fraud is often more than just a lost deposit; it’s a lingering sense of vulnerability. At Digital Forensics Corp., we specialize in turning the tables on digital criminals. We don’t just “report” fraud; we investigate it. Using advanced cyber intelligence, our team can trace the destination of funds, identify the infrastructure used by the scammers, and provide you with a comprehensive report that can be used by law enforcement or your bank’s legal department.
For businesses, we provide Cyber Monday fraud prevention audits. We help you identify the “leaks” in your checkout process where bots might be cracking cards or scraping your data. In the digital age, being “lucky” isn’t a strategy. Whether you are a consumer who lost money to a Black Friday phishing scam operation or a business owner under attack, our forensic investigators provide the technical weight needed to fight back and help you report a cybercrime when necessary.
FAQ – Black Friday and Cyber Monday Scams
The most frequent threats are “spoofed” websites that mimic major brands, fake shipping notification texts, and social media ads for high-discount products that do not exist.
While many are legitimate, Black Friday travel scams are common. Always verify the deal on the official airline or hotel site. If the price is 50% lower than the official site, it is likely a trap.
Report it to your bank immediately to freeze your card. Then, document the evidence and file a report with the IC3. Change your passwords if you logged into a suspicious portal.
Yes, if you follow strict security protocols. Stick to known retailers, use a VPN on public Wi-Fi, and never use a debit card for holiday purchases.
They use them to create a “sense of emergency.” Common tactics include fake “account locked” warnings or “limited time” coupons that require you to log in to a fake portal.
For businesses, look for a sudden spike in failed transactions (card cracking) or a large number of high-value orders from new accounts with different shipping and billing addresses.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Dr. Viktor Sobiecki
Currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Digital Forensics Corporation, where responsibilities span the leadership of advanced cybersecurity initiatives, data breach incident responses, and corporate strategic planning.
