Black Friday dates back to the early 1960’s when the day after Thanksgiving in the United States marked the start of the Christmas shopping season. With the rise of Online shopping, Cyber Monday came into existence in 2005 when online only retailers like Amazon were looking for a way to capitalise on Thanksgiving and extended Black Friday over the weekend to the following Monday.
Like Boxing Day sales beginning on Christmas Day and even Christmas Eve, the Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend has expanded over the years with Amazon starting this year’s shopping bonanza today, Friday 17th November running till Cyber Monday on the 27th. Many other retailers will be following suit, indeed many have already started.
But this is also a HUGE opportunity for SCAMMERS and they will be waiting at every corner with every trick hoping to catch someone with their guard down. Even if you are not intending purchasing anything over the next 10 days you should still be extra vigilant and treat anything out of the ordinary with extra caution.
The most obvious Black Friday Scam is when a fraudster creates a fake website, often imitating a major brand, offering generally hard to find items at a huge reduced rate. The website will be promoted widely across social media, email and text. Scammers hope to lure shoppers to their fake website, but they also hope people will share or like their posts and emails, so don’t be tempted to forward an email, no matter how appealing it looks.
A Fake Facebook page called ‘Currys Used Clearance’, claiming to offer heavily discounted products has already been spotted, but there will be many more.
But advertising hot deals isn’t the only way scammers will be trying to catch people out, there will also be a rise in other scams, like failed delivery, courier scams, fake tracking numbers, account verification, fake facebook profiles, incorrect bank details and even fake charity scams.
We have covered many of these types of scams in previous email alerts and you will find them all on our website, https://spirecomputerhelp.wordpress.com/
Remember the A,B,C – Assume nothing, Believe nobody and Check everything
Take 5 to Stop Fraud – STOP | CHALLENGE | PROTECT
The Spire Computer Help Team.
There are a number of ways you can report a scam:
· Forwarding suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk
· Forward suspicious texts to Ofcom on 7726
· Contact Action Fraud by visiting actionfraud.police.uk or calling 0300 123 2040
· Contact Crimestoppers by visiting crimestoppers-uk.org
If you believe that you have become a victim of an online scam and would like some help, contact Victim Support by visiting victimsupport.org.uk
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Getsafeonline.org has lots of advice about online safety at
https://www.getsafeonline.org
They also have a handy tool to check out whether a website is likely to be legitimate or fraudulent, at https://www.getsafeonline.org/checkawebsite/
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If you would like to receive more information about scams into your email box, you can sign up to the National Action Fraud Alert scheme run by the City of London Police.
https://www.actionfraudalert.co.uk/
Or, you can sign up for Which? Scam Alerts …
https://act.which.co.uk/page/103781/data/1
Or sign up to West Sussex County Staying Safe Online E-newsletter …
https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/fire-emergencies-and-crime/crime-prevention/staying-safe-online/
Article by Liam Dasey. Liam is one of our volunteer Digital Champions, but he is also a volunteer Digital Ambassador for West Sussex County Council and Get Safe Online, helping raise awareness about online safety in the community.
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