How to avoid Black Friday scams

Remember how back in the day, we used to see fake Takealot ads on Facebook? And people fall for it thinking they are buying from Takealot?

No social network is immune to this, just this weekend I saw a fake Superbalist ad on TikTok, punting an 80% sale.

It had all the hallmarks of a scam, incorrect URL that read superbalist-discountsale.com, which is not their legit site, badly worded About pages etc, and the biggest red flag, 85% off an iPhone 16 Pro. Before I went on the fake site, I went into my Superbalist app to confirm there was no massive 80%+ sale.

The scam here is for people to shop the sale and either never receive the products or steal their payment info.

In light of this, here are ways to prevent you from falling for Black Friday or Black November scams.

1. Stick to reputable retailers who’ve been around for years. Be cautious if it’s a new store you’ve never heard of.
2. Always check the URL and look for slight variations on popular sites, HTTPS alone is not enough; case in point, the fake Superbalist website. If you get an SMS or email and you’re unsure, type the URL out yourself.
3. Beware of deals that are too good to be true. Like a Playstation 5 for under R5000, iPhone Pros for R3000 or a Dyson AirWrap for R2500. Stay away.
4. Don’t pay via EFT to an individual, which also means to avoid social media only businesses. Stick to secure checkout methods that let you pay with a credit card as banks offer insurance on those transactions. You can file a dispute later if needed.
5. Don’t fall for Whatsapp voucher forwards, they are often phishing scams who steal your personal information.
6. Compare prices on multiple platforms to get an idea what an item costs before seeing the reduced prices. Also make a list of what you need and stick to it before falling for random cheap deals.
7. Look for proper contact information about stores to verify them, such as a landline number, physical address, company registration number, return policy, etc. If they only have a Gmail address, avoid shopping with them.
8. Use a virtual card for shopping online as it uses a tokenisation method with a randomly generated number because if your info gets compromised, you can delete that card and avoid the admin of replacing a physical card.

Interestingly, I recently bought a DJI item from Temu. It was my first purchase from the website as I’ve been avoiding shopping there because I didn’t like how aggressively their ads appeared everywhere.

The reason I shopped there was the DJI item was sold out and on back order everywhere else, but I noticed a seller on Temu had stock. I bought it and it has since arrived.

I’ve had a question on social media about if the product actually works. Here’s the thing, Temu is an online marketplace just like Takealot and Amazon. There are third party sellers who list products. And if I use Shein as an example, they have luxury goods with storefronts on there, for example like Coach and Armani Beauty. You can tell as they marked as a verified seller by Shein.

I found the product to be as advertised, they used DJI’s description and pictures, plus the seller had a high enough rating on his store front. The product was indeed legit.

Consumers need to read to make sure the listing says it is what is it, vs. listing an item without the brand name, if afraid of being duped.

That said, marketplaces do indeed have sellers who sell fake products but I recommend verifying the seller and checking out his reviews as well. And stick to the above mentioned Black Friday tips to avoid being scammed.