Scammers plan around the same shopping calendar retailers do. The surge of genuine deals, deliveries, and payment activity through Black Friday and into December is exactly what fake versions of all three can hide inside — a single suspicious message blends into dozens of legitimate ones in a way it wouldn't in a quieter month.
Fake Black Friday deals
A discount advertised well beyond what any legitimate retailer would offer is the clearest tell — genuinely steep discounts do happen during this period, but there's a point past which "too good to be true" stops being a cliché and starts being accurate. Before buying from an unfamiliar store advertising an aggressive deal, do a quick search for the store's name alongside "reviews" or "scam" — this takes thirty seconds and catches a meaningful share of fake storefronts that have already caught out other shoppers.
Delivery scam messages
This is the single most common festive-season scam pattern: an SMS or WhatsApp message claiming to be from a courier, asking for a small payment to release a "held" or "customs" package, arriving right when you're actually expecting several real deliveries. The volume of genuine deliveries in December is precisely why this works better in this period than any other. Go directly to the courier's own tracking page rather than clicking the link in the message — a real hold or fee, if one genuinely exists, will show there too.
Gift card scams
A distinctive December pattern: a message, sometimes appearing to come from a boss, family member, or friend whose account has been compromised, urgently asking you to buy gift cards and send the codes to help with a last-minute gift or emergency. Gift cards are close to untraceable once the code is shared, which is exactly why scammers favour them at this time of year. Any urgent gift card request, regardless of who it appears to be from, deserves a direct verification call before you act.
Charity scams
Genuine giving increases around the festive season, and fraudulent charity appeals increase right alongside it — a fabricated cause, or a real cause with a fake donation link. If you want to give, go directly to the charity's own official website rather than following a link from a social media post or forwarded message.
Card safety during high-volume shopping
Using a single low-limit card, or a virtual card number where your bank offers one, specifically for festive-season online shopping limits the damage if any one store's checkout turns out to be compromised. Check your bank statement more frequently than usual during this period — the sheer number of legitimate transactions makes it easier for a fraudulent one to go unnoticed for longer than it would the rest of the year.
The one habit that covers most of the above
Build in a short pause before any payment made under time pressure during this period — a "deal ending in ten minutes," an urgent delivery fee, a last-minute gift card request. The volume and urgency of the festive season is the scam's cover; a deliberate pause is what sees through it.