Tag: Black Friday

Stay Safe, Avoid Scams – Black Friday

Black Friday 2024 – How to Avoid Scams & Stay Safe online

The end of November has become synonymous with Black Friday, the day when Christmas comes early, and consumers can look forward to huge savings on their favourite products.

Unfortunately, the last Friday of the month is also a day when cybercriminals like to celebrate the takings from their latest financial scams. Against the backdrop of increasing fraud cases across the country, this Black Friday is a day not only to enjoy some serious savings but also to take online safety seriously.

Here are some of the common scams that cybercriminals may try to execute on the day and the weeks leading up to it, and how you can avoid them.

If it’s too cheap to be true, it probably is

Black Friday is all about saving money, and the psychology of getting a good deal is so appealing to many consumers that cybercriminals are able to exploit it to make their scams believable.

Usually, receiving an email or social media message about a product that’s 50% or more off its normal price would raise some eyebrows. But with the generous discounts offered around Black Friday, consumers often let their guard down and fall for non-delivery scams on items that are so cheap, it’s almost unbelievable.

  • This type of scam generally works by offering the customer an expensive product at 20% to 30% of its price.
  • Following payment, the seller will typically disappear and never make delivery. Alternatively, they may deliver inferior or fake goods, an empty box, or some other type of fraudulent package.

It’s easy to avoid this scam by only dealing with reputable retailers, but even this is becoming more challenging in a time when fake websites are proliferating.

Double-check retail websites to avoid losing money

Impersonation scams have reached a whole new level with entire brands and websites being duplicated by cybercriminals.

In our article on domain name scams, we touched on the importance of verifying that the website you’re dealing with is the real deal. This is especially important for customers dealing with retailers in the weeks leading up to Black Friday.

  1. Before you place an online order, it’s essential to ensure that the website you’re dealing with is genuine.
  2. Googling the site and comparing the URL that comes up first in the search results with the one you’re currently browsing is one way of doing this.
  3. If your favourite retailer offers a shopping app, it’s always safer to transact using that, rather than risk visiting a fake URL.

Beware of fake vouchers and discount codes

Another tactic cybercriminals are employing to fool unsuspecting consumers is offering Black Friday vouchers for sale which turn out to be fraudulent and unusable.

  • Generally speaking, retailers will never offer to sell you vouchers other than official retail gift cards.
  • The moment you receive an offer to pay R100 for R200 off, or a similar deal, your suspicions should be heightened.

When in doubt, the best rule of thumb is to purchase directly from your favourite retailer’s website, use the app, or even do it the old-fashioned way by going there in person on the day.

Keep your personal data safe with us on Black Friday and beyond

With fraud cases rising by 45% in South Africa, 2024 is the year to prioritise online safety.

Our comprehensive range of secure cloud storage solutions for businesses and households will help ensure that your data is kept securely in the cloud in encrypted form.

Black Friday Report Back

In the lead up to Black Friday in South Africa, shoppers who had been saving all year prepared to barge into their favourite stores and yank all their favourite products off the shelves before anyone else could. In addition to that, a whopping 43% of the South African population indicated that they planned to take advantage of Black Friday deals online – and they did. Black Friday specials abounded in SA, just like they do everywhere else in the world.

In 2018, the world spent $23 billion dollars on Black Friday sales. That’s the equivalent of R337 billion! The global Black Friday sales figures in 2018 increased by around 663% in 2019, but in South Africa, retail sales increased by 1952% compared to a regular shopping day.

The statistics and figures captured from FNB merchant machines in SA show an increase of 40% in sales from the previous year (the bank processed 7.4 million transactions which is a jump from the 5.6 million transactions it processed last year). Standard Bank merchant machines show similar jumps in sales as they report having processed 560 transactions per second across the country!

South Africans it would seem, did their homework and went into the Black Friday shopping extravaganza with a plan.

The Scams

We can tell you that Black Friday was a huge success for retail stores and online sites. It was also possibly a drag on the average consumer’s budget, but one question still begs to be answered: were there anyscams? One particular Black Friday faux pas that stands out is that of the Takealot price “problem”. You might have seen posts on social media along the lines of “Takealot’s Black Friday sale is a scam” or disgruntled shoppers complaining about the fact that the discounts offered weren’t actually discounts with the hashtag “#Takealotscam” attached

So what happened at Takealot?

According to shoppers, many of the items on sale on Black Friday on Takealot were advertised at a higher price than they had been days before the sale. And for the doubters; the screenshots that customers have of the price differences don’t lie.

There is much debate doing the rounds over whether or not Takealot was scamming its loyal customers or not.

For years, Takealot’s version of Black Friday (Blue Dot Sale), has created a considerable hype and been extremely well supported. This year, things were different. Unhappy shoppers reported the following:

  • Takealot prices were higher on Black Friday than on a regular day.
  • The prices changed on their website during the checkout process.
  • The payment processing page jammed.

The Takealot Rebuttal

Of course, with all the unhappy comments aimed at Takealot, the company had to intercede and have its say. Takealot made the following claims/announcements:

  • It is possible that two sellers were marketing the same product on Takealot at different prices.
  • Not all sellers on the site were/are part of the Blue Dot Sale.
  • If an item is sold out, the item will automatically revert to its previous non-sale price. This can even happen if a shopper is in the middle of the check-out process.

Black Friday 2020 Is Already on Its Way

Now that Black Friday 2019 is done and dusted, consumers are already stashing cash for the next one, 2020. Before then, some still need to stock up for the festive season. The best advice to online shoppers is to be careful with your cash. Do your research and ensure that you are making safe purchases.

Have you heard of any local Black Friday scams? Let us know – we would love to share them!

Black Friday 2019: The good, the bag, and the ugly

On Friday 29 November 2019, Black Friday will once again be taking over our lives – even if only for the day! Love it or hate it, like most everyone else, you are probably cautiously waiting for the ‘never to be seen again’ sales and ‘rock-bottom’ deals to hit the online world, but just how safe is it to shop online these days?

Without a shadow of a doubt, Black Friday brings with it a wealth of cybersecurity threats and risks. So, what can you expect and what can you do to ensure that you remain safe while still taking advantage of all the crazy specials on the day?

Consider this – cyberattacks increase by a whopping 60% on Black Friday and increase as the momentum for online shopping leading up to the festive season becomes more frenetic. It stands to reason then that Black Friday has earned itself a reputation as being a cybercriminal’s field day.

Protect Yourself This Black Friday

Here are just a few of the expected risks and threats and how to protect yourself from them:

Fake websites

The consumer’s mindset on Black Friday is to find a good deal, regardless, and that often leads to buying from online stores that they have never heard of before. Keep in mind that opportunistic criminals may create websites offering deals on popular products, but the business doesn’t actually exist.

Make sure that you buy your Black Friday purchases on websites of reliable and trustworthy online vendors. Do your research if you have never heard of a business before and they seem to be offering deals that are just too good to be true – they probably are!

Unsecure checkout points

Not all websites take their security as seriously as they should. When it comes to the payment of your goods, you should only do so if the company offers an encrypted, secure check out process. Check the URL bar for the lock symbol next to the URL. If there is no lock, it is not a secure payment.

Avoid buying goods from unsecure checkout points. This signals an easy way for hackers to gain access to your sensitive card information. To avoid this risk, opt for PayPal payments as the company offers additional security on payments.

Password hacking

This concept might seem a little extreme, but once you have made your purchases, change your passwords and ensure that they are all different and difficult to guess. The last thing you want is a hacker ordering products on your account or getting into your PayPal account.

Free Wi-Fi networks

Only make your Black Friday purchases while on your own secure home or business network. If you find yourself at a coffee shop or somewhere where there is free Wi-Fi available, rather don’t shop online. Your particulars are easy to access when you are using an unsecure network.

Conclusion

While Black Friday seems like a time to throw caution to the wind and buy, buy, buy; shoppers should try to keep their wits about them. Don’t put yourself at risk this Black Friday. Get the deals you want, but do so cautiously and with your data security in mind.