Happy Friday!
It's Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year and you can bet that scammers are going to cash in on the frenzy. Retailers are offering significant discounts throughout November and December to entice consumers to buy products from their online stores. Some forecasts predict that 2024 Black Friday purchases will exceed those of 2023 by $1 billion. While legitimate brands go all out to provide the best deals, some too-good-to-be-true discounts are an indication of something else — fake online stores.
According to a new study published by Netcraft, the bad guys are using a combination of AI LLMs (such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, etc.) with cheap domain names and erecting very professional looking online stores, such as those powered by SHOPYY. They're scraping product images from Amazon and using AI to create convincing product descriptions and titles.
The Takeaway
Fake stores employ various deceptive strategies, including:
1) Cloned Listings: Copying Amazon product pages, complete with identical product IDs and then applying steep discounts to lure you in.
2) Payment Fraud: Buyers may receive counterfeit goods, but more often than not, nothing at all.... because the whole site is a sham.
3) Fake Trust Seals: Many sites display bogus “Trusted Store” badges, falsely claiming to protect consumers with certifications like “100% Issue-Free.”
In short, always check the legitimacy of the store you're buying from. I always advise people to stick to trusted industry retailers for holiday shopping, especially those with brick and mortar stores. Remember, if the deal is too good to be true, it usually is.
Stay safe out there.
-Attila
PS. If you think that this email might be helpful to a friend, family member, client or co-worker, feel free to pass it along. Thank you for your continued support of Cypac's mission.
Thank you for helping us accelerate humanity toward a safer, more secure high-tech future.
New Friday Funnies What do Black Friday shoppers and the
Thanksgiving turkey have in common?
They know what it's like to be jammed into a small place and stuffed.
How can you tell which one of your friends got a good Black Friday deal?
Don't worry they'll let you know.
Comments