Black Friday takes place on the first Friday after Thanksgiving each year, and is a busy shopping occasion before Christmas. This year, the event falls on November 29, but many businesses have already started their promotional programs before that.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, many scammers have also quickly launched a series of scenarios to profit from gullible victims who are eager for big promotions. They can run fake ads on social networks, launch "unimaginable" incentives or give away free gifts...
There are some common scenarios that users need to be aware of to avoid becoming a victim of fraud during Black Friday (as well as other major shopping occasions) as below.
Free Black Friday Gift, Just Pay Shipping
This is a fairly common scam used by scammers on social media. They often create fake accounts to run ads with the content "give away completely free gifts of gratitude" to supporters. To increase the attractiveness, scammers will announce gifts with very large values, the recipient will only have to pay the shipping fee or provide delivery information.
But in reality, what the victim has to pay is a shipping fee that can be up to hundreds of thousands of dong and more importantly, personal information including name, phone number, address, sometimes even email and date of birth...
Users should visit reputable, verified websites to check information and avoid being scammed while shopping on Black Friday.
When sending gifts to users, organizations, individuals, and large businesses will not require payment or declaration of any sensitive information other than the details necessary for delivery.
Create fake social media profiles to sell "good deals"
Social media accounts are easy to create, so scammers often fake profiles of reputable brands and stores. Then, they introduce extremely attractive promotions that are hard to refuse, for example, "huge" discounts on expensive items at super cheap prices. With the prestige of the brand, users can easily pay in advance to seize the opportunity without knowing that they have fallen into the scammer's trap, and the bargain item never arrives.
There are many similar scam scenarios during Black Friday, as this is a time of deep promotions on many items, especially technology products. Users need to be extremely vigilant when seeing attractive deals on social networks, even from accounts with a verified blue tick (because they can be fake). If you see that account has too little information, few followers, and posts with poor interactions but a sudden increase in the promotion announcement, be vigilant and read the comments as well as check more information.
Attach shortened links in comments or private messages
Taking advantage of Black Friday, scammers often post attractive information and attach links for victims to "see more details" in posts, comments or send in private messages. But when clicking, users can be redirected to fake, malicious websites, or even infected with malware that automatically installs and executes commands to steal information and copy keyboard operations to the device without knowing.
Security experts constantly advise users to avoid clicking on strange links to avoid the risk of cyber attacks. Note that brands and businesses do not send promotional programs in private messages to users, and often do not use shortened links to hide the real name of the website.
Generate QR code that leads to malicious website
QR codes are increasingly popular among scammers because of their convenience and ability to hide suspicious signs that can be observed with the naked eye. Scanning QR codes that are widespread online can lead users to fake websites that contain malicious code to steal their identities, login information, or bank accounts.
Do not scan QR codes shared widely on social networks to participate in suspicious promotions.
Brands always provide users with multiple ways to access promotional information, instead of just forcing them to scan the QR code. If after scanning the code, the seller's website appears, stop the operation and open another browser to directly access the brand's official website to verify the promotional information.
Fraud through fake website
Black Friday is a big sale, so sometimes scammers don't need to impersonate the official website but create a new website and claim it is a special page for this period. The fake website still retains some similarities with the legitimate website, uses the brand, has many items similar to the real website but is attached with extremely large discounts, easily "dazzled" buyers.
When making transactions on these addresses, users will have their payment information saved, losing money and not receiving the goods as expected.
To avoid making the above mistakes, always be alert to discounted items and cross-check information by searching for the brand name and their website on Google (if you don't remember the official website address). Whenever accessing a shared link online, pay attention to every detail on the web address, for example, spelling mistakes, suspicious link extensions... In particular, do not click on ads that appear on this page.
Impersonating customer service
Fraudsters often set up social media accounts under the name of "customer care" on Black Friday to resolve user inquiries. In fact, they will ask for a lot of personal information to "authenticate the user", even suggesting to connect to operate on the user's computer through remote management software. These are all tricks to steal personal information and payment information of the victim.
Users should never grant access to their computers or personal phones to others. Always verify whether the person you are chatting with and asking for help is an employee of the company or not.
Fake order status update email
During Black Friday shopping, there will be many online orders, so scammers can create fake shipping company emails to send order status updates. They often use the name of a reputable company and always notify that the order has problems, asking users to click on the attached link in the email to fix the problem and verify information. In fact, that link takes the victim to a fake website to steal information.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-tro-lua-dao-tren-mang-an-theo-dip-black-friday-185241126114551212.htm
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