Don't let the deepfake, porch-pirating scammers ruin your holidays

After giving tech buying advice for decades, here are the best ways to not let scammers ruin Black Friday

Features By Lance Ulanoff published 16 November 2024

Aren't the holidays grand? All that togetherness, eating, shopping, gift giving, email and text scams, deepfake deals, trick websites, and people snatching gifts right off your front steps. Okay, perhaps it's a mixed bag. What you need is a quick reminder and some tactics for avoiding all the bad so you can enjoy the holiday season good.

A recent study from online security company McAfee found that over half of all Americans have received scam package delivery messages (or they claim "delivery problems"). Credit card problem scam messages were delivered to well over a third of all Americans. A similar number saw scam messages relating to their Amazon shopping activity.

It's a Black Friday holiday shopping jungle out there.

Start with a cleanup

Scammers target us year-round, with extra effort reserved for the holidays. By sharing less, you can undermine their efforts starting now and in the months ahead (until it's suddenly the holidays again). Stop taking those social media surveys that ask you to name your favorite color, first pet, first car, or hometown. Any of these details could be used to help them steal your identity or, more likely, be used to convince you that a text or email is really from a trusted entity or friend.

Go back through your social media accounts and delete any posts that shared more about you than you should've and remain more of a mystery in the future. It'll all make you less of a target during this holiday shopping season.

Nothing is real

Emails promising great deals from your favorite retail sites could be too good to be true. Scammers are creating fake sites that look like the real thing but are designed solely to scam you, steal your information, and more.

Instead of following links from unexpected emails or texts, always type in the URLs for your favorite shopping sites. If you end up on a questionable site, check the URL. Instead of "Amazon.com," you might notice it's "Amazon.eo." Also, take a look at the product photos on the site. If they look low-quality, they might've been lifted from somewhere else.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors