Are you thinking about snapping up a Black Friday deal? Unfortunately, so are the scammers. New research from cybersecurity leader Trend Micro shows that as nearly half of us prepare to fill our online carts, a wave of dodgy deals and fake delivery alerts is sweeping across inboxes and social feeds.

More than one in three shoppers have already spotted something suss this season, and nearly one in five reckon they’ve been scammed while shopping or booking travel this year.

Scam season is here

According to ACCC data, Aussies have lost an eye-watering $269.5 million to scams between January and September 2025 – a 16 per cent increase compared to last year. And with Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner, things are heating up.

Trend Micro’s new survey of more than 1,000 Australians found that 49 per cent of us are planning to shop online or book travel this Black Friday, while another 37 per cent intend to do their bargain-hunting on Cyber Monday. Nearly half of those surveyed say they’ll be spending even more time hunting for discounts this year compared to last.

However,  bargain-chasing comes with risks. The research shows that 35 per cent of Aussies have already come across social posts, ads, emails, texts or websites spruiking discounts that looked like scams. A sizeable chunk of people are feeling anxious about it too. Around a quarter say they’re very or extremely concerned about being targeted by scammers this holiday season, and almost one in three worry someone close to them might fall victim.

Trend Micro’s Director of Consumer Education, Ashley Millar, says consumers are right to be concerned.

“With nearly half of Australians shopping or booking travel online this Black Friday and many spending more time chasing discounts, cybercriminals are seizing the moment. Fake deals, spoofed delivery alerts, and impersonated brands are flooding inboxes, messages and social feeds,” Millar said.

The sneaky ways scammers strike

Scammers aren’t mucking about this year. Trend Micro found that one in four people have already encountered fake content or messages impersonating big-name brands. Even online charities aren’t off-limits, with one in five Aussies seeing what they suspected were scammy donation requests this festive season.

Then there’s the delivery scam epidemic. A whopping 68 per cent of Australians say they’ve received a fraudulent message or email telling them something was wrong with their delivery. It’s a tactic that plays right into the chaos of sale season, when half the country can’t remember what they ordered five minutes ago.

Payment scams are also in the mix. More than one in five Australians have been asked to pay for a holiday gift or travel booking using a gift card instead of a standard payment option. Trend Micro warns that this is a classic warning sign that something’s off.

When it comes to where scammers are lurking, most Aussies say they’re hit hardest over email, followed by social media and then text messages. Facebook tops the list of platforms where people feel most targeted, with Instagram and WhatsApp also being targeted.

How people realise they’ve been scammed

Of the 17 per cent of Australians who’ve fallen victim to an online shopping or travel scam this year, some only cottoned on when the goods failed to show up. More than a fifth of victims say that’s how they realised they’d been duped.

Others discovered the truth a little too late, only realising something was wrong after doing a bit of research post-purchase. Meanwhile, a smaller group only found out when money mysteriously disappeared from their bank account.

Aussies trust their gut over tech tools

When Aussies spot a suspicious deal, most of them turn to the internet for a quick background check. Around 37 per cent say they did a bit of digging online to see whether the offer was legitimate. Close behind, 35 per cent said they simply trusted their instincts, or thought the scam was so obvious it wasn’t worth a second look.

Surprisingly, only a small portion of people relied on an online scam-checking app to verify a potential fraud. Just 12 per cent reported using one, suggesting most shoppers still rely on their own judgement rather than digital tools.

According to Millar, that instinctive behaviour is exactly what scammers exploit:

“Financial stress is accelerating risk. When budgets are tight, people act fast, and that’s when mistakes happen. One in three shoppers have already encountered suspicious offers this season. It’s a reminder that urgency and emotion are powerful tools for scammers, and that even small lapses in caution can have costly consequences.”

How it’s impacting small businesses

While this research focuses on consumer behaviour, there’s plenty in it for small business owners to pay attention to too. If scammers impersonate your brand online, it can confuse customers and damage your reputation. Making sure your customers know how to recognise legitimate communications from you, and encouraging them to double-check anything that feels off, will help you to maintain trust.

With more customers browsing and buying during peak sale periods, your website, payment systems and customer data need to be protected. So make sure to tighten up your cybersecurity to keep criminals at bay.

Even small vulnerabilities can become major issues when cybercriminals are this active

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