Black Friday Scam Deals: 5 Easy ways to Spot them this 2021

November brings Black Friday season sale, and as usual there’s been a spike in fake websites offering mouth-watering deals. So how do you know if a discount sale is real or fake? how can you avoid falling for fake deals this Black Friday?

Worry not!

We know the pains of being scammed by fraudulent stores. This is why we’ve shared the following tips on how to differentiate between a scam and a legit online store.

How To know if the online store offering Black Friday sale is Legit

According to cnet.com, more than 7,600 items bought during Black Friday sales are never delivered. Yearly, people fall prey to dubious websites offering huge discount sale. Use the following tips to spot a Black Friday Scam.

Too Good To Be True Prices

This is the biggest tip-off that a retail website is a scam. If the price is so low that you’re already having doubts, it is clearly a scam. Discount on all merchandize is one of the warning signs you shouldn’t ignore. Like, Don’t!

Lack of Business Address

No mention of the store’s physical location anywhere on the website? Looks suspicious but not surprising. Fraudulent stores and anonymity go hand in hand. In cases were an address is mentioned use the following tip to verify the address;

• Copy address
• Paste on search engine (eg Google)
• See if the address is recognized as a business. Often times fraudulent businesses use fake addresses eg- residential address, or address of a shopping mall.
• If the latter is the case, look up the shopping mall, and see if the website’s physical outlet is located there.

Zero Customer Support

The website does not provide an email or phone number? Bro, you need to take a walk. This doesn’t look good. It really doesn’t! A contact us form is not a reliable means of support. The communication is often one-sided. Meanwhile, if the store provides an email address. Follow the tip shared above to see if the email address or phone number has been used elsewhere. Why? Often times scammers create a chain of fake websites using same email, phone number and even address.

Low Trust Score

What is the website’s trust score on Scam Detector? You can check it here. Is the trust score is 1%? your heels should be behind you now. How old is the website? you can check the info here. Is It below a year, just few weeks? Damn! run fassterrrr!

Fake Social Media Icons

So there are are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and even YouTube buttons on the website, but wait…… do these icons direct you to the website’s social media pages? It doesn’t? please save yourself the heartbreak and exit from that website now! Meanwhile you can also search for reviews online using the website name and the word ‘scam’ as an attachment. You’d be surprised the things you’d see.

Scam Black Friday Deals You Should be Wary of

These dubious sites use the brand logo and website design of real businesses to scam people. Then entice you with discount or Raffle game. We discovered a large number of the following brand scams –

Fake Oculus discount sale

VR headsets are being offered for as low as $65 on these shady Oculus websites – Oculusonline.store, Oculusheadsets.store, Oculuss.us, etc..

Fake Cricut factory store sale

Cricut Explore air, Cricut Maker 2, Cricut Joy, and other Cutting machines are going for $85.99 in these fraudulent websites – cricut-online.club, cricut-deals.live, cutjoymachine.xyz, etc..

Blackstone discount sale

Grills, Cooking Station, and Airfryer Griddle Combo are sold for as low as $83 in the following websites – B-grills.com, blackstone-sale.com, etc..

Dubious Target Black Friday Sale

Even the popular retail company isn’t left out. There’s been a handful of reported fake Target websites; Targetsale.life, supertarget.shop, supertarget.life

Power Tools overstock clearance sale

Tools and Combo kits are not left out in the disparaging scam sale. The following scam stores have been reported – makitasale.store, greenworks-outlet.store, ryobi-sale.shop, etc..

Scam Black Friday sale on Designers

Even your favorite designer shoes are affected by the Black Friday ongoing scam. Original Air Jordan are being sold for $143.59 in these stores; jordan-11s.com, jordans-11.com, etc..

KitchenAid Outlet scam sale

Coffee maker and KitchenAid mixers are also among the list of products being sold by fake websites; ninja-deals.store, kitchenaidmixerus.shop, kitchenaid-outlet.com, etc..

How do these Fake Websites Work?

When you make a purchase, you’d get debited but you wouldn’t receive a confirmation email or email containing the order’s tracking number.

There’s absolutely no way to contact the store, so you either live with your loss or try to file a chargeback through your bank. But well, the chances of getting your money back is pretty slim.

Unreliable websites like these ones are not safe to shop from. This is because shopping from this store expose buyers to the risk of hacked credit card and overcharged fees.

If you you been ripped off by this store you should make a complaint to your bank and request for a chargeback immediately. It is also important that you change your credit card info or get another credit card.