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Black Friday is coming up and you are looking forward to saving some money on Christmas presents. There are lots of offers coming into your inbox so it is difficult to sift through them all but then you see a great bargain from your favourite clothes shop.
You follow the link from the email in the hope of bagging one of the few remaining jumpers you have had your eye on. The website looks identical to the one you have been on many times so you pay your money for the jumper via bank transfer and settle back, content that you have secured a bargain.
The jumper will never arrive, however, as you have fallen for one of the many scams that have caused Black Friday to be called Black Fraud Day by one expert.
This year Black Friday falls on 28 November, but discounts and offers are advertised by some retailers week in advance. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned people to be on their guard in the run up to the day, and to stop the minute a purchase appears suspicious.
The cybersecurity firm Darktrace says there has been a sharp rise in the number of malicious emails mentioning Black Friday through October, with most coming on the last day of the month.
Jonathon Ellison, the director for national resilience at the NCSC, adds: “This is … a time when cyber criminals seek to exploit our increased spending, using trusted brands, popular products, and current events to deceive people into clicking malicious links or sharing personal and financial information.”
The increased availability of artificial intelligence tools means criminals can create authentic-looking websites mimicking famous brands and potentially duping people into handing over money.
They may also create fake small businesses, says Adrian Ludwig of Tools for Humanity, a tech company.
“With AI, fraudsters can now create entire deceptive small-business identities, complete with faces, stories and photo-perfect shops in just minutes,” he says.
What the scam looks like
The offer may come via email or you may see it on social media, posted from an account which was created recently.
The Consumer group Which? says that unrealistically low prices which are inconsistent with other sites should be one of the first alerts.
When you click through you may find a website which is not fully developed. It may not have a privacy policy, a postage address or an “about us” page.
Instead of asking you to pay by credit or debit card, it will request a bank transfer, the preferred method of moving money by organised crime gangs. Website that ask for payment by cryptocurrency should also raise alarm bells.
The illegitimate site may also have an impersonated URL. “Scammers will turn John Lewis into J0hn Lewis (with a zero) … to trick rushed consumers,” said Nathaniel Jones of Darktrace.
There will often be an element of urgency to the sale – the site might say you only have a few minutes to secure the deal, or claim there are only a few items left in stock and that you should act immediately to secure one.
What to do
The NCSC advises anyone who receives an email they suspect is a scam to forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service. Suspicious text messages should be sent to 7726.
If you become a victim of fraud and lose money to a scam, in the UK contact Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud.
But mostly, be alert. If there is anything even remotely suspicious about a sale, stop and think. Try to use a credit card for payments, as in the UK many sales will be protected under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
