Black Friday and holiday shopping scams

Fake storefronts, look-alike web addresses, and payment tricks around big sale days.

Written November 12, 2026. Black Friday 2026 is Friday, November 27.

Black Friday 2026 is Friday, November 27. The days around it, including Cyber Monday, are a busy time for legitimate sales — and for fake storefronts, look-alike web addresses, and messages that rush you to pay in a way that is hard to reverse. This article is practical advice with official sources. It is not a promise that you will catch every fake ad.

What these scams often look like

• A price that is far below every trusted store, especially on a brand-new gadget or appliance, sold by a site you have never heard of.
• A web address that is almost right — a letter swapped, a hyphen added, or a “.net” where you expected the store’s usual address.
• A shortened link or QR code in a text, email, or flyer that you did not ask for.
• Pressure to pay with a gift card, a wire, a cash app, or cryptocurrency to “hold” a deal or “fix” a checkout error. A real retailer does not generally ask you to pay for a cart of merchandise that way.
• A caller or chat window that offers to “complete the order for you” if you read a card number or a one-time passcode out loud.

A slower way to shop

1. Open the store’s site or app the way you usually do — by typing the address you already know, or by using a bookmark or an app you installed yourself. Do not start from a surprise text.
2. If an offer arrived by email or text, go look for the same offer on that official site. If it is not there, treat the message as untrustworthy.
3. Check the spelling of the address in the bar at the top of the browser after the page loads.
4. Use a credit card or another method you can dispute if the goods never arrive. Be extra cautious with gift cards and wires. The IRS explains, in a tax context, why scammers prefer gift cards: the money is hard to recover. The same payment warning applies to shopping scams. See the IRS’s gift-card scam page in the sources below.
5. Read the shipping address one more time before you pay. If a “support” chat wants to change it, stop.
6. Save the order confirmation. If a follow-up text later says the package is stuck and you must pay a fee, do not tap the link. See our article on package-delivery texts.

If you already paid and something is wrong

Contact your card issuer or bank quickly and explain that you think the charge may be fraud. If a scammer told you to pay with a gift card, contact the company that issued the card and tell them. Report the incident to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. USA.gov also maintains a general page on scams and fraud.

A credit freeze, which is free, does not undo a shopping-scam payment, but it can still be worth putting in place so a stolen card or personal information is harder to use to open new credit. See how to freeze your credit.