Black Friday deals are here! 7 tips to avoid being scammed

Black Friday deals are already here. And so too are the Black Friday scams—attempts to part you from your hard-earned money.

Avoiding these schemes isn’t too hard, though. Just a little extra vigilance can keep your shopping cart full of real discounts and your credit card safe from unwanted charges. Here are a few simple things to watch for, plus several more that will help protect you during this busy season.

4 key ways to avoid Black Friday scams

Watch what links you click on

Study the URLs of links you’re about to click on—or just head directly to the sites you want to visit. Malicious advertisements, email, social media posts, and forum threads (yep, they’re still a thing) can try to push you to phony or phishing sites meant to steal your personal information, including your credit card info.

Beware text messages about deals

Just as with other methods of communication, you should scrutinize the links sent to you in text messages—and their senders. This one gets a particular callout since it can be harder to catch a suspicious text message on a smaller screen, particularly if you get lots of notifications.

Be sure of your extensions and apps

Now is a great time to get extra cashback or rewards for shopping you’re already doing—so long as you’ve downloaded a legitimate browser extension or app. If one catches your interest, research it first before downloading and installing. Same goes for add-ons and apps that look for deals or find coupons for the sites you’re shopping on.

Be wary of deals that seem too good to be true

Official websites sometimes do slice as much as 70 percent (or even more) from list prices at this time of year. But look out for fake sites and third-party resellers on known sites like Amazon. If the price is much cheaper than the official sellers, that’s a red flag—proceed with extreme caution. Investigate the seller; if you can’t confirm they’re trustworthy, buy elsewhere. Relevant case in point: All those recent Amazon “deals” listing AMD’s $479 Ryzen 9800X3D processor for $199 were scams.

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3 ways to further protect against Black Friday scams

Keep your software up to date

Both your browser and antivirus software should protect against scam and phishing sites—so long as they’re kept up to date.

Whether you rely on Windows’ built-in antivirus protection or a more full-featured antivirus suite, leave it on automatic updates so you get the most effective blocking of new scam sites and other attacks. Generally, you shouldn’t need to do anything—just let the software run as normal.

For Chrome and other browsers, they should automatically update and notify you to restart the browser—but it doesn’t hurt to do a manual check if you’re about to go on a big spending spree.

As for mobile phones, some third-party antivirus software protect against text scams and suspicious links through an iOS or Android app, if included with your subscription. Or you can make use of a free service like Bitdefender’s Scamio, which can analyze the message sent to you and offer an opinion on legitimacy.

Use virtual credit card numbers

Select credit card issuers let you create virtual credit card details for purchases, as do private businesses like Privacy.com. Wallet services like Google Pay and Apple Pay also generate these automatically for transactions.

These numbers are tied to your account, but hide your real number. If you accidentally get phished, it’s easy to cancel them. And if you don’t notice right away, a fraudster will be limited in its use—if it can be even used again at all. (Virtual credit cards function a bit differently depending on the provider.)

Don’t let stores save your credit card info

Leaving your credit card on file may be convenient, but what’s easier for you is also easier for anyone with access to your account. If you fall for a scam that reveals your login info, a lack of saved payment details can prevent unauthorized charges from hitting your credit card or bank account.

If you need to rely on autofill to save time, use a password manager instead to store that info. While you can save payment info to your Google or Apple account, a more robust password manager can be helpful across the board for online security—and it works more easily across different platforms.

Black Friday: The best PC deals around

If you’re looking for hot tech deals without all the potential for scams, we can help — and help you find truly good deals during the holiday, too. Check out our Black Friday roundups for the best PC-related deals in a wide variety of categories!

Author: Alaina Yee, Senior Editor, PCWorld

A 14-year veteran of technology and video games journalism, Alaina Yee covers a variety of topics for PCWorld. Since joining the team in 2016, she’s written about CPUs, Windows, PC building, Chrome, Raspberry Pi, and much more—while also serving as PCWorld’s resident bargain hunter (#slickdeals). Currently her focus is on security, helping people understand how best to protect themselves online. Her work has previously appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine.