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The Black Friday Scammers
Complete your purchase // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
As Black Friday approaches, scammers are gearing up to exploit shoppers looking for holiday deals, according to Money.com.
The Big Picture: Thousands of fraudulent online stores have already been set up to deceive unsuspecting Black Friday shoppers.
Behind the Clicks: Cybersecurity company NordVPN has uncovered more than 10,000 fraudulent online stores impersonating 166 popular fashion and luxury brands across 26 countries, including the US.
The fraudulent websites are impersonating major brands like Adidas, Ralph Lauren, and Crocs, complete with official logos and addresses. According to NordVPN’s chief technology officer, Marijus Briedis, the sites are designed to look nearly identical to the brands’ legitimate websites.
The fake stores are appearing in Google search results and AI recommendations, meaning shoppers can stumble upon them without ever clicking a suspicious ad.
Even the payment options look legit, featuring logos from PayPal and Klarna. But the sites don’t actually accept those payment methods. Instead, they’re designed to collect shoppers’ credit card details.
Final Mark: France and Germany are the most heavily targeted countries, but NordVPN also identified 91 domains targeting US shoppers. That means plenty of unsuspecting Americans could fall victim to these scams while hunting for Black Friday deals.
The Future of Online Shopping: As fake storefronts become harder to spot and scammers make their way into search results and AI recommendations, pressure could mount on Google and AI platforms to weed out fraudulent websites before shoppers encounter them. Otherwise, even the most convincing Black Friday deal could come with a big question mark.
Together with Pendulum
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*Based on a consumer survey of 274 participants using a product containing three strains found in Pendulum Metabolic Daily for 6 weeks.
**Based on a consumer survey of 50 participants using a product containing three strains found in Pendulum Metabolic Daily for 8 weeks.
Today’s email was written by Deena ElGenaidi.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.