Last minute holiday shopping this weekend? Here’s how to stay safe from scams
Cybercriminals are looking to take advantage of the festive season
· TechRadarNews By Ellen Jennings-Trace published 20 December 2025
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- Scammers are taking advantage of the holiday season to trick shoppers, experts warn
- Convincing ads, URLS, storefronts aim to entice customers to enter card details
- Parcel scams encourage shoppers to give away their personal information
Christmas shopping can be pretty stressful, but it’s not just important to get the right present - but due to the rise of online scams, it's also important to keep your money safe and make sure your purchases are legitimate.
Around 86% of Brits say they’ve seen ads from ‘unfamiliar retailers with scam-related URLs’ this holiday, so we know these sites are around, and they’re ramping up ahead of the sale season.
Research from McAfee has revealed this year's top scammer tactics for tricking shoppers, with top brands being impersonated with fake ads, copied storefronts, and bogus URLs in a bid to fool distracted browsers.
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Most faked brands
Most commonly, the impersonated brands are ones you trust and ones that are popular around the holidays - high demand, limited edition items, luxury brands, and popular tech.
The fake websites created by scammers will appear legitimate, and trick many shoppers into entering their payment details.
Criminals will focus on the brands they know people love and (crucially) are willing to pay high prices for. For luxury brands, this means the top five most impersonated brands are Coach, Dior, Ralph Lauren, Rolex, and Gucci.
Scam URLs around other brands also pop up, with consumer brands like Apple, Nintendo, Samsung, Disney, and Steam standing out as particular targets for criminals. Huge demand for new products like the Switch 2 and new phones or tablets from Samsung and Apple.
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