Topic: Beware of scams this coming Black Friday (Read 414 times)

If the discount is too good to be true, then it must be from a fake seller, but if it's from the direct shopping centre, either their link to their official website or you see a discount of such, then I don't think there is any harm in trying to get such an offer when you have the opportunity.

Black Fridays are times when shopping centres use discounts to sell off old stuff that they still have in stock or probably use the means to attract more customers to their store.
 
Those who fall victim to the too-good-to be true offers are those who are already in search of means to purchase a particular product in less value compared to what they are being sold in the open market. They are the type of victim that the scammers are in search of.

Have been hearing black Friday but I have never experienced it before and most times it's usually scam so we need to to be very careful because even on sites I don't think those guys are giving a discount i don't know for other countries but my own country the discount is a scam not only hacker the scammers like opportunity like this because their was one time experience i got about winning something during blackfriday and I almost clicked the link and we have failed to listen to aviod random links so that we don't get hacked.

That of physical stores is even understandable than that of  online shopping websites because a lot of people fall victim for this, because they find it very hard to differentiate between the two that's the fake and the real website. It is better to make verification before venturing into anything because that is the most important, but a lot of people don't even care to very or not.

Thing now is start people are learning everyday so scammers will only continue to open people's eyes so there scheme will not work twice on people because people are getting more enlightened.

Buying online during this period is indeed a significant risk due to scammers using various strategies to steal people's money. To be on the safe side, I believe it's best to avoid online shopping and focus on purchasing physical products instead. It's well known that scammers take advantage of this period to target unsuspecting individuals.

That offers will not coming in the Black Friday but daily so we should identify the offers and not tempting to click the link. We may difficult to make sure if that is from the real site but we can check on the header of the email. Usually, the scammers will use different @xxx.com as the email id so you must double check before you do something.

If that offers comes from the trust site, they will use something like [email protected] rather than [email protected]. You can see that in the header of the email so you can delete it immediately.

Here in Europe (at least in my country). Black Friday in itself is one big scam. Instead of proper discounts starting today, they started like a week ago with big signs "up to 70% discount", while in reality everything that you actually need is discounted by 10% max, if any discount at all.

I know that's exactly not topic of this thread, but I am just venting a little bit as some furniture pieces I plan to buy aren't on discount at all so I will have to pay the full price. 

It's a good thing that you are making people aware of the probability of getting scammed before getting scammed.
Scammers are probably waiting for their prey this Black Friday and would have cloned many such shopping sites.
The simplest thing to do would be to triple check the website adddress before buying anything on any site.

I confused what is happening today every time I go to a different shop it has a sale and I just remember it is a Black Friday sale, it seems hackers see another opportunity to deceive and they now even entries with online shopping websites, well people recently now after release the e-commerce many shops now adopted this kind of selling because its more convenient they don't need rents at all for the stores, just open an account, show their product and process through online payment. Now seems hackers use this opportunity not only to steal peoples credentials but could also fully utilized their devices so still stay vigilant with those sales coming right now. Even you don't have crypto still people have banks and other infos now. Dont trust even your search engines first result.

The best solution is ignoring all sort of discount or bonus, well all this are common trick marketers use especially festive season when all discount will be implemented either for more purchase. If considering all this as stress I will prefer avoiding any purchase that has to do with black Friday, honestly they no longer care if the discount is suitable they just attach the name "black Friday" concerning scammers I believe my main focus should be the price given meanwhile cheapest price always sound as scam making it difficult for anyone to believe, victims always share their story how they got scammed people can actually learn from previous mistakes.

You're absolutely right, when scams get into gadgets , Bitcoin or other financial devices, the concerns are always heightened. It boils down to every gadget. Phones, IPADS and even laptops. When you're scammed in the pursuit of these devices and you find out obviously. I recommend you don't even use the one the scammer sent to you since it's possible it have been compromised and using it exposes all digital, financial, work-related accounts and data transferred through that phone. People in top company positions that are victims of these can get their companies defrauded since the scammer would likely have the financial accounts login details used on those compromised devices.

Scammers always come up with different tactics to scam people. However, those who easily fall for them are often eager to make quick money, especially in the cryptocurrency industry. These individuals are usually ready to take any kind of risk once they hear about an opportunity to earn more money.

Additionally, people who fall into the hands of scammers again are often those who fail to stay informed about the new tactics scammers are using at that time. It is much easier to avoid scammers when you have updated informations.

For those who receive suspicious emails and start clicking on links or replying to messages especially when it's about opportunities to make money please note, no easy money anywhere that someone have to email and give you the opportunity, let be wise. In fact, avoid using the same email address you use for registering on exchanges or platforms where your money is involved for other registrations. This is often how scammers get your emails addresses.

Not only those who are greedy will fall to the scammer's victims,  who don’t know anything about what they are about to do but choose to do it because they heard someone talking about how much they earn from the specific thing, but greedy people already have the knowledge about the thing, so all they want is how to make more money from how it is supposed to be done successfully, but since there is knowledge, their own will be limited, and they won’t get scammed like those who don’t know anything about it.

If you want to buy a hardware wallet, you should do so only from the manufacturers, if you are sure you are in the correct site and they are offering a discount, then that's fine, but you should not allow a "too good to be true" discount allure you to a scam site. Generally i don't even believe most of the black Friday offers i see in the part of the world where i live, many times the discounts are not real and you are still buying the product for the stipulated price.

That's actually true, this coming black Friday scam is likely to happen everywhere and if people are not smart enough they might be caught up with this scammers claiming to be doing promo or black Friday. Infact they come in different forms. The easiest way to detect this kind of scammers is when you see the offer looking so good to be true like a product of $1k selling for $400. discount of %60 or %70. This scammers know people love cheap things so they reduce the price to an attractive amount that will spice up people to come and buy from them and they will insist on payment before delivery which if you eventually send them them the money, the story changes.

Some will install some malware and viruses in some device and sell cheap and people will buy it, thinking the phone is private not knowing the phone is been compromised and is vounarable to hack because all the necessary information may be taken.

Black Friday is supposed to be for discount and because of current economic meltdown slot of those discount are being lowered in their percentage, let say a product that used to be 20% off discount last three year is now having a less than 5% off discount and this is somewhat what is available on black Friday offer's this year.


So if you see some where that an online shop is offering anything close to 50% or above discount, you should already know that that is a possibility of being scam sites, and targeted at cryptocurrency users is a way to properly concealed their scam proceeds easily with high privacy.

It's during any well-known event, that one shouldn't be more careful than ever when they are having any deal with anyone or groups that involve money because that is the exact time that scammers showcase their level of intelligence to dupe people who will fall for their tricks. After all, they already know that there will rush of demand, that's the time for people to fall prey to any good offer that is enticing to them without doing much research on it.

I take it as it's during that popular event period that one is to more careful. If it is possible, avoid any popular event period, to be on the safe side because scammers are smarter these days than we think when it's about money.

But why not just to the physical shop of vendors and partake in the black Friday deals, because to the best of my knowledge, it is not only online vendors that usually do black Friday sales. Even the scammers are getting wiser now, they are fully aware that people have began to realise that deals with higher discounts are likely to be scam, so they will also lower their rate to what everyone is doing. For me it's best to avoid anything online purchase this black Friday and go to the physical shops of dealers that are doing black Friday sales and get whatever you want during the black Friday sales. Even scammers now are giving moderate discount, as every legit vendors out there.

This thread just reminded me about a couple of faked black Friday giveaways I've come across about twice now. Literally these people give very fancy order prices for items, shoppers see them unimaginably cheap and rush into making payment most of the time. Another annoying thing I noticed is that they sometimes compel these shoppers to share a couple of their fake links just to be able to scam a bigger audience.

Not only because we are in a black Friday season, these kind of scams also tend to flood the internet when there are important things including the current bull run we are experiencing, besides they will end up profiting more from scamming people this bull run.

The best advice to those who cannot differentiate between fake and original websites is for them to simply use physical stores. Sometimes there are only slight differences between these products in physical stores and those discounted products marketed online. The online space this period is not safe as scammers have already flooded the online space disguised as vendors. Instead of losing your coins or fiat to scammers, simply walk into a physical store and get what you want. And if your order is not too urgent, wait till the festive buzz is over and you will get quality products way cheaper than the discounted products marketed online.

In all social media and even physical businesses, everyone seems to be in a hurry due to the season we are in and as usual many things are bound to happen. I have seen many schemes also being created to undo others because everyone is in a hurry to make money this holiday season. This is the time that the basic rules of checking for scam should never be ignored. I usually protect myself with the following points:

• Nothing is free on the internet
• The popular quote "if it is too good to be true, then it probably isn't'

With these, one should be able to control how much he is aroused by any scheme being proposed by anyone, be it scammers or genuine people.

Greed is what would make a prospective buyer of any item without questioning his or herself about the offer of 80% discount on a product or service in the name of Black Friday. No matter how massive the discount is said to be, no genuine businessman will be willing to sale off his products and services at an amount that's cut off his profit not to mention down to the capital.

There are important items that people shouldn't have to wait to make purchases until it's black Friday for them to enjoy discount. Goods and items usually sold out on black Friday's are in few cases believed to be near expiration date or no more invoked and the companies just want to do away with them to bring in new ones. You ain't a dumping ground, Lol.

First off, we appreciate the update and wake up call about scammers. But, the most important things we should be paying attention to are these key points listed out. It’s better to be too careful than to be entirely lousy especially with finances.
Online shopping cannot be ignored entirely especially when one has had a good first time experience with it, the comfort, seamless services and all that, all you have to look out for is not to get involved with scammers. Do not use all sites you see offering huge discounts, because it is possible that they pay for the audience, and the minute you become gullible you become an instant victim.
So stick to your vendors and double check every address of a webpage requesting personal details.
Sad thing is people will still be victims, just make sure it is not you.

I was thinking about that when reading this thread; you read my mind!

I'm the first guilty when it comes to buy online because of the convenience of buying with just one click while sitting on my sofa, but we'd really make us a favor, and the entire world, if we lifted our asses and moved to a nearby store to buy what we needed. We wouldn't consume so many things we don't need, would spend much less we would be promoting local employment and, back on topic, physical stores are much harder to fake

What should matter during these holidays shouldn't be far from a norm that should have become a second nature and it may involve trying to know the prices of products before the main day, checking to know the ratings and published reviews on the site, and keeping all apps anf software for purchase, up to date so as to avoid the possibilities of scammers getting access.

The best advice for a tip during a black Friday doesn't go much more than a reminder to use secure passwords for online accounts, to educate yourself on phishing scams. Avoid those deals that may be too good to be true. Don't trust, verify any websites a potential customer is directed to.

Besides these tips, a black Friday deal is an initiative that should help people gain more value from their purchase and it shouldn't be a loss-loss situation for both the sellers and customers alike, if precautionary measure is taken into cognizance.

Thanks @OP for this important reminder, black Fridays every year is a day of discounts and many people will be eager to check out for sites that are offering discounts so that they can take advantage of it. It is also a season for scammers to cash in on people's ignorance and steal from them, so it is better to be in the know and take every precautionary measures to avoid being scammed. Also as we're entering into the festive season, scammers will also find means to steal from unsuspecting individuals. Any offers that seems to good to be true should be given second thoughts, business owners are not Santa Claus, they can't give discounts that will fold their businesses. Beware of scam projects that will promise unrealistic returns on a short term and never click on sites that you know nothing about, these are a few precautionary steps not to be scammed in this season and always.

The issue of scams keeps increasing and they keep coming up with new stategies every time just to deceive people and allowing them to fall victim and the way scammers will want to penetrate you they will do everything possible just for them to be able to make their victim trust them that is what they do they always want to make people trust them and the moment thay trust is gain that is when they will be able to actually do exactly what they want and that is why the first thing they focus on is how to make you believe them.

And if not that truly people like free things if not this period we should be able to tell if something is true or not, we know that everyone is looking for a way out but the chance of having that way out is small because the victim will fix their eyes on what they will get, and most times people are to greedy so we need to control how we feel about money so that we won't get desperate and get in things that we are going to later regret.

Black Friday and other discount sales in different shops at different times of the year use this marketing strategy. I tend to compare prices before and during Black Friday, and I've noticed there's often no significant difference.

They just raise the original price, strike it out, and then display the 'discounted' price - which is equivalent to the normal price before Black Friday. It's all marketing tactics to make people think prices were slashed.

Meanwhile, prices were raised and then 'slashed' just for the psychological effect. It makes people feel like prices were reduced. It's all about choice, though: if you want to purchase, go ahead; if you don't, let the product slide.

And if you know fishing out these scammers is difficult for you, maybe you can't ascertain if the email is real or the link is legit. Maybe you should just get what you want from a physical store. If you can get this stuff from a physical store, then say no to online scams.

Scammers can literally clone a website - your favorite shopping website, your favorite gambling site, anything! These cybercriminals can take time to monitor your online activity, knowing the sites you visit most often. They'll try to exploit that.

When you click a link or respond to emails, they gain access to your online presence and accounts. Every time of the year is a great time to stay vigilant, as scammers don't have off-seasons. They're available from January to December but they tend to be more active during festive seasons - Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas promotions.

Many businesses offer promotions to appreciate their customers year end which scammers capitalize on these opportunities. We must be really vigilant and double-check links, always verify if they're original, not replicas created by cybercriminals.

Good as you exposed their plan ahead op, scammers have different strategies they use to play people in this industry which many people know how they operate some time, but some beginners are still falling victim to scammers in the community and they may fall victim to scammers on Friday because scammers know how to use free things or bonus to draw the attention of the beginners and they will believe and spend huge amount of funds on scammers project because they have be carrying away by the discount or bonus that involve in the project, well, Christmas and new year is approaching, which is the season many scammers use to showcase different scam products and strategies to convince people.

Thats the thing when you noticed some huge discount and a promotional banner somewhere. These scammers are good to make it looks like legit and if they also use crypto as payment from a brand that doesnt really supported it by their official site then you should worry enough that it might not be legit.

Wonder why people keeps doing shopping online while can go to physical store to buy some off products.

There are many non custodial and open source Bitcoin wallets to use, if you can not afford to buy hardware wallets, use these wallets because they're good wallets.

Non custodial.
Open source.

You have all you needs to store your bitcoin safely.

If you want to buy a hardware wallet, but don't want to spend money and buy it properly, in a right way, and you want to bargain its price for cheaper cost, it leads you to scammers.

[GUIDE] How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way
[LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets

Black Friday is a good opportunity to buy items at a discounted price and people take advantage of this opportunity. But I wouldn't wait until Black Friday before I buy an important item like a hardware wallet. Just because I want to save little money, one might incidentally grant criminals access to your hard-earned money. There is a saying in my tribe that cheap things usually have hidden defects. Some of the discounts offered by some trading platforms are too good to be true that is why we need to be careful. However, thank you OP for reminding us that we need to be vigilant.

black Friday on most shopping sites be it Jamia and what have you have become used to making use of this tactics to sell there items at a rather expensive rate than the ideal price slash they promise customers. if you have some set out item you intend buying during Jamia black Friday for instance, just go and check the current price and write it down and later come back to see the effect of the supposed 40% slash on the main Jumia Friday and you will notice that its all scam at the end of the day. at a time when scams it taking different form, one has to be over careful most especially when it relates to some of the things that appears to be too good to be true. the emotions that comes with the festive season is one factor that makes people fall victim to scam because they want to get things at a cheaper rate. save up the amount you're able to and leave in line with your budget so you don't lose more than you're trying to save while looking for cheap things or a price slash. its best to work with a trusted vendor you're used to and that you're sure will outlive the yuletide rater than patronizing an untrusted fellow just because of a promise of a price slash that might be all fake.

You must make sure the link comes from the real store so you will not have a worry when you want to buy the product. You can discuss with their support about the product before you check out and pay the product. Sometimes, the support may gives you a discount for their customer so you can hope this as a gift to you.

But the thing that you must aware is you don't have to use crypto to buy something from online. You can go to your local store to buy the product so you will prevents the scamming that may happen to you.

This is actually the worst thing one can do.  Purchase a well known Hardware Wallet for cheaper from a Scammer.  You are giving them your Bitcoin Address, your physical address and all your personal information too.  That could lead to a very disastrous ending.  It happened before, it can obviously happen in the future.

You know what they say about things that seem too good to be true.  I do not know how things are in other countries.  In mine, Black Friday is in itself mostly a Scam any way because most 'discounts' are fake.

The issue doesn't stop at email phishing links related to Black Friday; we also find them in search engines and social media, and in general, the Internet is crowded with fraudulent plans related to exaggerated discounts. Even websites that offer discount coupons should not be trusted, as they may redirect visitors to phishing sites that impersonate official store domains, which may look very similar.

In addition to these good tips,  installing an ad blocker and adding Phishing Site Detection extensions will provide solutions for more protection. Fraudsters target cryptocurrency pioneers through the most popular products in this sector, such as hardware wallets, Seed phrase storage, and clothes that bear crypto logos and the like, especially during peak seasons of the year to promote these things that call for greed, so you should not believe what they publish no matter how attractive it is.

Noticed this exact pattern with one of the most popular shopping sites in my country. I remember putting an item in my cart and didn't proceed with payment but when I returned during the black Friday sales to see if I can get the item cheaper, it was costlier than when it wasn't even black Friday yet.

The shops take advantage of us since people don't even compare price but just want to buy something when it's labelled as discounted. I prefer to buy anything I want before the festive period as it's no longer a secret that things get very experienced this time of year.

For the scams, only the gullible ones are falling for this, to avoid being one of the victim is to get yourself enlighten and Kudos to the OP for doing just that to those that'll read this thread.

In general I think that whole Black Friday thing is turning into big scam. And it's not even about scammers trying to steal your money. It's more about that it's getting difficult to find really good deals.
Sellers manipulate with 40%-50% discounts. They increase price just before Black Friday and then they add that huge fake discount. You have to follow price changes before buying something if you don't want to get ripped off.
And yeah, don't even talk about scams which is described in OP. During Black Friday it's way easier to find some victims.

Additional tips for staying safe in this season close to the festive period.

1. Don't go for offers to real to be true.
2. Don't be greedy or very eager for participation.
3. Make sure you check and double check on the intended platform used for this promotion.
4. Don't make payment or deposit in a bid to get rewarded back in multiple folds of your deposit.
5. Research and take time before going for any offer and don't rush while doing this.

If we can maintain a safety precautions in what we see online, then we will be far from being scammed, because many will be devising for more means to extort from others at this period using discounted offers.

Scammers are very smart and they can do anything to make sure they scam people, no matter how it is some people will still fall for the scammer trap and those who will fall for the trap are those who are very greedy, some people will not mind whether the person he is talking with is a scammer or not all that he wants is to have a good discount, I know everyone wants a good thing but some good things are not real.

Some people will see a notification in their email and they will click it and follow the instructions maybe they will have a chance to get something good, scammers will never get us if we are content with what we have, you look at the 100% of those who got scammed 80% of them are greedy people, to not let us fall in the scammers trap we need to be smart.

Good work OP but it's best everyone has the mentality that there is no off season for scams, you aren't meant to increase you guard at a point and drop it at another. It's best to maintain a high level of security consciousness especially when you are dealing with crypto-currency.

You should not only avoid clicking phishing links in relation to black Friday scams, you are expected to vet every links that are sent to you to avoid being sorry at the end of the day. To even further protect yourself you should If you can make use of cold storage wallet.
https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html you can learn how to set it up there.

The market isn't safe so you must ensure you to the best of your abilities protect yourself.

Cryptocurrency scam book is written about many scam types and avoid something is too good to be true, is one of principles to avoid scams.

Black Friday will be one of most favorite chances for scammers to send such offers to massive people who can become victims of scammers.

I just want to give heads up to everyone specially his coming Black Friday, as there are a lot of crypto criminals and cyber actors that are going to prey for shoppers. And it could take in any shape or form. Maybe they can mimic a hardware wallet and says that they are at a huge discount. Or like this financial actors, dubbed as dubbed as SilkSpecter.



So they targeted US and UK Black Friday shoppers and offers huge discount. And it's hard to distinguished what's real and what is fake because this cyber actors are really good at copying the original site.



https://blog.eclecticiq.com/inside-intelligence-center-financially-motivated-chinese-threat-actor-silkspecter-targeting-black-friday-shoppers

Another way that you can fall for it is:

a. received email and offering good discounts
b. bargain price of some well known crypto hardware wallets

So just protect yourself with this kind of scam attempts.

a. Do not click on any suspicious link in your email, specially unsolicitated
b. Double check the URL of the website that you visit before entering any information

On the other hand, there could be legit offers this coming Black Friday, but it's better if you keep yourself aware of the potential that scammers are going to be everywhere during this holiday.