Scammers are targeting Black Friday shoppers with AI messages, phishing emails
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest shopping days of the year – and prime time for scams. Now in 2025 scammers are remembered more than ever, thanks to AI.
According to research from the cyberheriture company Monitoringthere was a 30-fold increase in purchase-related screens and fraudulent messages over the past month. November is already the top month for online scams in 2025, even before Thanksgiving weekend.
The Guard also saw an increase in the number of unique email addresses promoting blackmail campaigns related to Friday last week – by more than 500 percent.
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What is driving the rise? The company points out – research Since the beginning of the year from the Anti-Webbing Prishing Group, which found that 76 percent of criminal websites now use AI-generated content.
AI has not only helped design scammers to create content with their programs, but also to assist scammers in creating convincing deceptions.
Bright light speed
The usual Screele signs of the letter – spelling or grammar mistakes, lack of familiarity with the company and its products it tries to imitate – are on the way out. With AI, scammers can completely duplicate all websites in their phishing campaigns.
AI-generated voices and videos can also provide scammers with convincing impersonations of company employees. In short, AI helps scammers appear genuine.
Bad actors targeting black shoppers on Friday focused on a few popular buzzwords over the past few months, a Dgada Guard study found. Those brands include AT&T, amazon, apple (physical and brick and mortar), Loews, verizon, costco, walmart, and kroger.
An example of a scam text format used by bad actors.
Credit: Guarfud
Why Black Friday and Cyber Monday? It is not just because there are many consumers who use online at that time. The usual distractions of the holidays, combined with the urgency to find limited-time deals, results in consumers becoming more vulnerable to disappointment.
The most common Scam plan, GuardIO says, is the “Account Emergency.” These are messages that inform customers that their Amazon account has been suspended, say, or their Verizon Bill payment has been declined. Recipients may be inclined to carry out these scams as they want to fix the problem during the holidays.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), American consumers lost more than $432 million to online shopping scams in 2024 – and 2025 will likely see that loss increase.
One of the easiest ways to avoid being scammed is not to click on any links received via email or text. Go directly to these companies’ websites from your Web browser, or through the official mobile app, instead.
