Don’t get caught out: Fake Black Friday deals and how to avoid them

By George Storr

Published: Thursday, 25 November 2021 at 12:00 am

Every year Black Friday serves up a tempting range of tech deals. If you’re on the lookout for a new phone, a new TV, or any new devices at all, it’s the perfect opportunity to bag a bargain. However, it’s also easy to get swept up in the tidal wave of deals and to over-spend or buy something you don’t need. Here are our top tips on avoiding a Black Friday nightmare.

In a poll of 2000 shoppers, 22% said they had regretted at least one of their Black Friday purchases. 89% said they found the Black Friday sales stressful, and TVs (32%), phones (30%) and PlayStations (28%) were the most commonly regretted purchases of the seasonal sales, according to figures from Idealo.

The same poll showed that 32% of shoppers struggle to tell whether any given deal is legitimate. Have no fear – this guide will help you to be a savvy online shopper, able to make the most of Black Friday discounts and pick out the real deals.

Another alarming piece of research from Which showed that 85% of Black Friday deals in 2020 had been the same price at some point in the six months before the sales.

Fake Black Friday deals

Max: yoga mat or mouse pad?

While looking into the best and worst that seasonal sales have to offer, we heard from Max (@_salvageyard), a reader with a hilarious but regrettable Black Friday story.

“I ordered a yoga mat on Black Friday from Amazon without reading the reviews,” he explained.

“The mat came 3 to 4 months later and was really small, roughly twice the size of a mouse mat. I went to read the reviews and the top mentions were ‘waste of money’, ‘absolute joke’, ‘misleading’, and ‘mat is tiny’.

“I learned my lesson. Always read the reviews!”

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Claire: Apple-solutely not what I ordered

Our team also heard from Claire, a reader with a nightmare Black Friday experience behind her. Here’s what Claire had to say:

“I saved money to buy an Apple Watch for my partner two years ago and waited for Black Friday to buy, as it went down in price. I used two gift cards, and the rest was a normal transaction.

“I was so excited. I waited all day for it to come, and when it arrived, I immediately thought, “Hm. This doesn’t look like a watch shaped box.”

“When I opened it up — it was a first aid kit! Now, it was a very good first aid kit, but not an Apple Watch.

“It took two days to get in contact with the seller and request that they send me a new watch. The funny thing was I didn’t even get a watch second time around. I got an Amazon Echo Dot. They didn’t believe that I didn’t get another watch delivered, and it took me two weeks to get my money and gift cards back. Then I had to go and buy it at full price somewhere else.”

So, how do you sort the wheat from the chaff, dodge the fakes and pick out the genuine money-saving Black Friday tech deals?

How to avoid fake Black Friday deals

Buy from retailers you trust

It’s always safest to shop with retailers that you know and trust. If you haven’t bought from a site before, then look for online reviews from previous customers. Ultimately, if a little-known site is offering a deal that seems too good to be true, it might be!

This is especially important when buying online as entrusting card details to dodgy online retailers can lead to fraudulent use of your bank account. Thankfully, most online retailers and online banking set-ups now offer extra security measures to prevent this.

Mainstays like Argos, Currys and John Lewis are always a good bet. John Lewis often offers extended warranties on products too, while Currys has a well-loved price-matching policy.

Remember also, when buying from Amazon and eBay, that you’re not always directly buying from those platforms. In many cases, third-party retailers sell their goods via the site, so it’s always worth checking their reviews before you buy.

We’re bringing you only the genuinely good Black Friday deals

If you’ve learnt anything from this article, it’s that there are a lot of fake deals out there and shopping around is key. Here are a few examples of genuinely good Black Friday discounts we’ve spotted this year.

For more, head to our best Black Friday deals round-up.

Check prices and don’t be misled — use price comparison tools

Some retailers are more than willing to list slightly misleading previous prices in order to make discounts seem larger. Some will even boost the price of a product before a sales event so that when the price is slashed, the retailer can list a larger percentage cut and attract more attention. Comparing prices across retailers is a good way to check how genuine these discounts are.

Use price trackers like camelcamelcamel and PriceSpy to make sure you get the whole story on any given discount. The ‘Cameliser’ plug-in from camelcamelcamel is easy and intuitive to use but only works on Amazon. Whereas PriceSpy’s tracker works across a range of retailers but can be a little more clunky. Either one is a great tool to make sure you’re informed this bargain-hunting season.

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Getty

The images below show off a good example of why camelcamelcamel can be useful. This example takes the Amazon page for the Samsung Galaxy S20 5G with 128GB of storage. Currently, it’s priced at £419.99.

Pressing the small camel icon – which appears at the end of your search bar after installing the plug-in – will open the window pictured below. This window displays the current price, the highest price and the lowest price that the product has been sold for on Amazon. There’s also a handy graph helping you to visualise whether the current price is a good one.

So, why is this useful? As you can see below, the main Amazon product page displays the current price and suggests that this has been discounted from £709.97. However, a quick look at the Camelizer graph shows that the phone hasn’t been at that price for a while. It also shows us that the phone was cheaper in October than it is now, suggesting that a better price is likely to be available in the near future.

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"S20"

Do your research

Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert, places a huge emphasis on doing your research before Black Friday begins.

He said: “If you have your eye on something, check prices NOW. Then when it comes to Black Friday, you’ll know if the ‘discounts’ are really cheaper. Check prices at the retailer you were planning to buy from, and do a wider price comparison.”

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Martin Lewis (Getty)

Be aware of your cyber security when shopping online

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are increasingly online events, with online stores bearing the brunt of the shopping rush, rather than physical ones. The days of shoppers physically fighting over discounted televisions on newsreel footage might be over, but online shopping has its own risks and pitfalls. It’s important to stay safe online, avoid scams and keep your bank details private.

So, what steps do experts recommend for staying safe while shopping online? Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist at VMware said:

  • Set up multi-factor authentication and don’t recycle passwords, or passphrases, across multiple accounts to protect yourself. Attackers are and will continue to modernise their tactics to find new ways to put consumers’ financial data at risk.
  • If it looks too good to be true, it may very well be. This year, the scarcity of some products predicted in the run-up to the festive season, due to the ongoing supply chain issues, is creating a more attractive playing field for fraudsters. Consumers should keep in mind that if someone is offering a shortcut to the front of the line for an in-demand product, it may be a scam.
  • Verify requests for additional customs fees or delivery charges. With shopping habits shifting further online as a result of the pandemic, attackers are attempting to trick customers into paying customs fees or delivery charges through fake tracking notifications. Following the rush of purchases many consumers will make online over the Black Friday weekend, it may prove much harder for them to do their due diligence when receiving seemingly legitimate texts or calls from couriers. It’s therefore important to always err on the side of caution – go directly to the official website (rather than clicking on any links shared in emails or texts) and manually enter the tracking number there.
  • Be mindful of scams involving gift cards. Fraudsters and scammers are everywhere this retail season, so don’t fall for something too good to be true. Scammers will hold an “online auction” for cards that haven’t been activated. People buy the cards, but then find out these cards don’t work. Bottom line: avoid online auctions for gift cards.”

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Shop around

It sounds obvious, right? But plenty of shoppers don’t shop around on Black Friday. Comparing prices across online retailers is simple and easy and should be your first port of call in checking whether a deal is genuine.

The key retailers — with the best prices so far this year — are Currys, Amazon, Argos, John Lewis. Our expert team is keeping a close eye on their sales and more across the web. Use the links below for the latest info on all these retailers and more.

Want real-time updates? You can also head to our live Black Friday deals coverage.