The FBI has issued an urgent ‘scam’ warning to Black Friday shoppers after a report revealed ‘telltale’ signs of a cyber attack.
Millions of shoppers will be looking to bag a bargain this Black Friday, whether online or on the high street.
As many as one in three people will be shopping for deals in the Black Friday sales, with customers in the UK predicted to spend an eye-watering £233,300 per minute.
However, fraud experts are warning that shoppers using Safari, Chrome and Edge could have their financial information snatched.
The FBI has advised that you should carefully check the URL of whatever website you are on to ensure it is ‘legitimate and secure’, Forbes report.
Websites should have the ‘telltale’ secure connection padlock in the address bar and https at the beginning of the full address.
If the website is not secure to the URL, this means it is not obviously right and you should move on.
Other advice suggests that you do not buy from a website until you have checked online available reviews.
For sellers on auction sites, you also need to make sure they have a lot of feedback and ratings.
Next, you should not buy from sellers ‘who act as authorized dealers or factory reps of popular items in countries where there would be no such deals’.
The FBI also warns that you should not buy from websites that specify unusual shipping arrangements that bypasses customers checks or fees.
Lastly, it is being advised that you should not buy with pre-paid gift cards. The FBI explains: ‘In these scams, a seller will ask you to send them a gift card number and PIN. Instead of using that gift card for your payment, the scammer will steal the funds, and you’ll never receive your item.’
Earlier this week, risk analysts at fraud prevention firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions said customers should be ‘extra vigilant’ as the Black Friday bonanza gets under way.
The firm warned that fraudsters often use sophisticated bots to test stolen login credentials at high speed and on multiple websites at once.
Nationwide Building Society also reported that ‘card not present’ fraud – is the building society’s most common fraud this year, accounting for nearly a quarter of all fraud cases in 2024.
More than £42million was lost to purchase fraud in the first half of 2024 with 375 cases every single day, according to trade body UK Finance.