That “free Black Friday gift” can be a phishing trap. Scammers impersonate major retailers, promote impossibly cheap products, and send shoppers to lookalike websites that collect card numbers, bank credentials, passwords, gift-card codes, or personal information. Not every scam directly empties a checking account, but stolen details can enable unauthorized charges, fraudulent purchases, account takeover, or follow-up theft.
A typical message says: “You’ve been selected for a free [brand] gift. Pay $4.99 shipping before midnight.” The danger is not the gift or even necessarily the shipping fee. It is what the page asks you to surrender in order to claim it.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Amazon eGift Card - Amazon Logo | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Amazon eGift Card - Happy Birthday | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Amazon eGift Card - Birthday Wishes | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Amazon Physical Gift Card in a Gift Box - Better than Gold - Black | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Amazon Physical Gift Card in a Mini Envelope - Candlelight Celebration | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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The five rules that prevent most fake-gift scams
- Verify independently. Do not use the link, phone number, or QR code in the promotion. Visit the retailer’s known website yourself.
- Never pay a supposed seller with gift cards or cryptocurrency. Gift cards are legitimate presents, but a seller or “brand representative” demanding their codes is a major warning sign.
- Never enter a bank login or one-time passcode from an unsolicited message.
- Use a credit card for a legitimate online purchase when possible. Credit-card protections may make it easier to dispute certain charges, although reimbursement is not guaranteed.
- Contact your financial institution immediately if you entered payment or banking information or sent money.
How a “free gift” becomes financial fraud
- The hook: An ad, email, text, search result, marketplace listing, or social post promises a free product, exclusive reward, or extraordinary Black Friday discount.
- The click: The message sends you to a page that copies a retailer’s logo, colors, product photography, and language.
- The collection: The page requests a card number for shipping, a bank account for a reward deposit, a password to “verify” your identity, or personal information through a survey.
- The monetization: Criminals can make unauthorized charges, use reused passwords to enter shopping or financial accounts, sell the information, or persuade victims to transfer money.
- The escalation: A second caller may pose as your bank, the retailer, law enforcement, or a fraud department and ask you to “move” money or reveal a verification code.
That chain matters because fake-gift scams do not all produce the same loss. One victim may receive counterfeit merchandise; another may lose a gift-card balance; another may expose a debit-card number or banking password. The result depends on what information was requested and what the criminal does next.
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The main Black Friday scam variants
Fake “free gift” giveaways
These promotions claim to offer a loyalty reward, survey prize, or exclusive gift from a recognizable brand:
- “Claim your free Black Friday gift.”
- “Exclusive gift for loyal customers.”
- “You’ve been selected for a brand reward.”
- “Complete this short survey to receive a high-value product.”
- “Pay only a small shipping fee.”
- “Your loyalty points expire today—redeem now.”
The offer may use a familiar logo, product image, or brand color scheme. The supposed reward may be used to justify collecting your name, address, phone number, email, date of birth, card details, bank information, or account credentials.
Fake brand discounts
A social-media ad or search result advertises a major discount on a familiar product, but the destination is an unfamiliar store. It may take your payment and deliver nothing, send counterfeit or materially different merchandise, create an unwanted recurring charge, or retain the payment details entered at checkout.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe FTC warns that social-media shopping ads can impersonate real companies and direct consumers to sites selling counterfeit products, different products, or nothing at all.
Survey-and-shipping-fee pages
The survey is often a data-collection funnel rather than a path to a real reward. After a few questions, the page may request a card for “shipping,” a bank account to deposit the prize, or a login to confirm eligibility. Read the checkout terms carefully: a small initial charge can sometimes conceal recurring billing or additional fees.
A shipping charge is not automatically proof of fraud. It does mean the promotion deserves independent verification before you enter any payment information.
Rank #2
- Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire and carry no fees.
- Multiple gift card designs and denominations to choose from.
- Redeemable towards millions of items store-wide at Amazon.com or certain affiliated websites.
- Available for immediate delivery. Gift cards sent by email can be scheduled up to a year in advance.
- No returns and no refunds on Gift Cards.
Fake delivery, order, or refund messages
A text or email may say a parcel cannot be delivered, a payment failed, a refund is waiting, or an order must be confirmed. The message demands a small redelivery fee or sends you to a fake support page. The fee may be only a few dollars, but the real objective can be obtaining your card details.
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Counterfeit stores and lookalike domains
Some fake stores look polished, use HTTPS, accept credit cards, and display copied reviews. Those features do not prove that the merchant is genuine. A criminal can build a professional-looking site quickly, and encryption protects the connection—not the honesty of the business.
Gift-card payment demands
Gift cards are normal gifts. They are not normal payment methods for an online retailer, bank, government agency, employer, delivery company, or technical-support representative. If someone tells you to buy cards and provide the numbers or PINs, stop communicating and contact the relevant company through an independently obtained channel. The FBI identifies prepaid-card demands as a holiday-scam warning sign.
The second-stage “bank” call
After you click or submit information, criminals may call claiming to be from your bank or the retailer. They may know which brand appeared in the original message and use that detail to sound credible. Hang up and call the bank using the number on your card or in its official app. The FBI says it will not ask private citizens to move money by wire transfer, cryptocurrency, gift card, or prepaid card.
Warning signs to check before you pay
- The offer is dramatically better than the brand’s official sale.
- The promotion does not appear on the company’s official website or verified account.
- The URL contains misspellings, extra words, unusual punctuation, or an unexpected domain ending.
- The page uses a countdown timer, “last chance” warning, or pressure to act immediately.
- A supposedly free item requires shipping, tax, verification, activation, or membership fees.
- Payment is limited to gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, payment apps, or another difficult-to-reverse method.
- The page asks for a bank login, one-time passcode, Social Security number, or full debit-card details.
- The message contains an unexpected link, attachment, or QR code.
- The contact information differs from the information on the brand’s official website.
- The site has copied reviews, generic legal text, poor grammar, or inconsistent branding.
- You are asked to install software, a browser extension, or a mobile app to claim the offer.
- The seller refuses ordinary credit-card checkout or says the deal disappears if you leave.
These are signals, not mathematical tests. A real brand can advertise on social media, and a fraudulent site can have correct spelling and HTTPS. A brand name in a URL also proves nothing: scammers can use subdomains, redirects, or unrelated domains containing the brand’s name. Navigate from the official company site instead.
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How to verify a Black Friday promotion safely
- Do not click the promotion again. Do not reply, use its “unsubscribe” link, scan its QR code, or call its number.
- Open a new browser tab. Type the retailer’s known address manually or use a saved bookmark. Do not rely on the suspicious message to get there.
- Search the official site. Look for the promotion, its terms, eligibility rules, and the correct customer-service page.
- Check the verified account independently. Treat a logo or account name in the original post as unverified unless you reach the account through the brand’s official site.
- Compare the price and terms. An unusually large discount, a supposed free item, or a hidden recurring charge requires extra scrutiny.
- Research the seller and domain. Search the company name and domain with terms such as “review,” “complaint,” and “scam.” Treat search results as clues, not proof.
- Contact the company independently. Use the number or support page found on the official site, not the suspicious message.
- Use safer payment practices. For a legitimate purchase, use a credit card where possible, avoid saving card details on an unfamiliar store, and retain the receipt, order number, confirmation email, and screenshots.
What to do if you already clicked
If you opened the page but entered nothing
- Close the page and delete the message or ad.
- Do not download files or install extensions.
- Update your browser and operating system.
- Run a security scan if you downloaded a file or installed software.
- Watch for follow-up texts, emails, and calls related to the offer.
If you entered a password
- Change it immediately on the real service’s official website.
- Change it anywhere else you reused it.
- Sign out other sessions and review recent login activity.
- Turn on multifactor authentication.
- Check recovery email addresses, phone numbers, and email-forwarding rules.
If you entered card information
- Call the card issuer using the number on the physical card or in the official banking app.
- Ask whether the card should be frozen or replaced.
- Dispute unauthorized charges and monitor pending as well as completed transactions.
The FTC recommends credit cards for online shopping where possible because consumers may be able to dispute charges for goods not received, duplicate billing, or wrong or damaged merchandise. Disputes are not guaranteed to succeed; the outcome depends on the issuer, timing, transaction, and applicable rules.
Rank #3
- Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire and carry no fees.
- Multiple gift card designs and denominations to choose from.
- Redeemable towards millions of items store-wide at Amazon.com or certain affiliated websites.
- Available for immediate delivery. Gift cards sent by email can be scheduled up to a year in advance.
- No returns and no refunds on Gift Cards.
If you entered bank credentials or a one-time code
- Contact the bank’s fraud department immediately.
- Ask about locking the account, changing credentials, replacing access devices, and reviewing or reversing unauthorized transfers.
- Do not rely only on changing the password.
- Assume a later call claiming to be from the bank may be connected to the original scam.
If you sent money or shared gift-card codes
- Contact your bank, card issuer, payment app, wire service, or cryptocurrency exchange immediately and request fraud intervention or reversal.
- For gift cards, contact the issuer, report the fraud, and preserve the card and purchase receipt.
- Save transaction records, wallet addresses, emails, texts, phone numbers, and screenshots.
- Report the incident at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.
A practical response timeline
In the first minutes
Stop communicating with the scammer. Contact the card issuer or bank through an official channel, secure compromised accounts, and preserve evidence. Speed matters more than buying security software or trying to negotiate with the website.
Later the same day
Review pending transactions, change reused passwords, enable multifactor authentication, check account-recovery settings, and report the ad, message, listing, or account to the platform and impersonated brand.
Over the following weeks
Monitor bank and card accounts, email, phone, and credit reports. Be suspicious of “recovery” services that promise to retrieve your money for an upfront fee. A second scam often targets people who have already admitted they lost money.
If personal information was stolen
For U.S. consumers, start at IdentityTheft.gov. Its recovery plan directs victims to contact companies where fraud occurred, close or freeze affected accounts, change passwords and PINs, place a fraud alert, obtain credit reports, and consider a credit freeze.
A credit freeze is free, available to anyone, does not affect your credit score, and remains until you lift it. You must place freezes separately with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A one-year initial fraud alert is also free and can be placed with one bureau, which must notify the other two.
A freeze blocks many new-credit applications; it does not stop unauthorized charges on existing bank or card accounts. Continue working directly with those institutions.
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- Gift Card is redeemable towards millions of items storewide at Amazon.com
- Gift Card has no fees and no expiration date
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- Scan and redeem any Gift Card with a mobile or tablet device via the Amazon App
What security tools can—and cannot—do
Browser warnings, antivirus software, password managers, multifactor authentication, and identity-monitoring services can reduce risk or provide alerts. They cannot make an unfamiliar retailer legitimate, detect every phishing page, reverse a bank transfer, or guarantee reimbursement.
Paid services such as Aura and Malwarebytes identity protection may offer monitoring, alerts, recovery assistance, or insurance depending on the plan. They are optional. Use free official recovery tools and contact your financial institution first. A paid plan is not a substitute for immediate incident response.
How widespread is the problem?
The figures below are U.S. reported losses, not complete estimates of all fraud and not Black Friday-only totals. The FBI says reported 2025 losses exceeded $503 million for non-payment and non-delivery scams, while reported credit-card fraud losses reached $282 million. The FTC separately reported $3.5 billion in imposter-scam losses in 2025; that broad category includes many scams unrelated to shopping.
The FTC also said shopping scams were the most commonly reported type of social-media scam in 2025 among people who reported losing money through social media. The distribution is broader than social media: shoppers can encounter the same tactics in email, SMS, search ads, marketplaces, QR codes, and fake customer-support pages.
For context only, the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre reported £11.8 million in online-shopping fraud losses during the festive shopping period from November 1, 2024, through January 31, 2025. That figure uses different geography, dates, and reporting systems and should not be combined with U.S. statistics.
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- Your bank or card issuer: Use the number on your card or the official app.
- FTC: ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- FBI: IC3.gov, particularly if money or sensitive information was lost.
- The impersonated brand: Use its official fraud or abuse-reporting channel.
- The platform: Report the ad, post, account, listing, or message where you encountered it.
Do not wait for a final charge to report a suspected compromise. Early contact gives the financial institution the best opportunity to secure the account, investigate transactions, and explain available options.
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- Free One-Day Shipping (where available)
- Scan and redeem any Gift Card with a mobile or tablet device via the Amazon App
Frequently asked questions
Is every Black Friday deal a scam?
No. The key question is whether the promotion can be confirmed independently through the retailer’s known website or verified account. A social-media ad alone is neither proof of fraud nor proof of legitimacy.
Is HTTPS enough to trust a store?
No. HTTPS encrypts the connection but does not establish that the merchant is genuine, that products are authentic, or that an order will be delivered.
Should I freeze my credit after entering card details?
A credit freeze is most useful when personal information could be used to open new credit. Card exposure also requires an immediate call to the issuer, card replacement when advised, and transaction monitoring. A freeze does not stop charges on an existing account.
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What if I entered only my email address?
Expect follow-up phishing and impersonation attempts. Secure your email account with a unique password and multifactor authentication, and do not trust later messages claiming to help you recover a reward or protect your account.
Can I get my money back?
Possibly, but never assume reimbursement is guaranteed. Contact the relevant financial institution, payment service, gift-card issuer, or exchange immediately and ask what dispute or recovery options apply.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
