Black Friday scam warning: The 10 riskiest products to purchase online
As the holiday season approaches, Australians have been warned to watch out for online shopping scams.
With online purchases surging during COVID-19, losses to online shopping scams are up by 42 per cent this year.
- Scroll down for the top 10 riskiest products for online scams
Scamwatch has urge shoppers to look out for fake websites which offer products at very discounted prices.
When a person makes a purchase from one of the sites, they receive a fake item, or no item at all.
Fake ads on classified websites are also on the rise, increasing by a staggering 50 per cent this year.
Australians are expected to spend $5 billion online on Friday, during the Black Friday online shopping bonanza.
Founder and CEO of the Retail Doctor Group, a consultancy firm for retailers, Brian Walker, says it’ll be a mammoth day.
“We expect anywhere up to around 13 million Australians to get online and have a bit of a look,” he said.
But Mr Walker says the bulk of Christmas gift shopping will still happen in bricks and mortar stores.
“Most of it will be in the physical stores. Online retail, certainly pre-COVID was an average of about 8 per cent of all sales,’ he said.
“With COVID, the vast bulk will still take place in the physical stores.”
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The products you’re most likely to be scammed while buying online:
- Pets
- Shoes
- Vehicles
- Phones
- Laptops/computers/drones/iPads
- Clothing
- Toys
- Games/Nintendo/X-box/Jigsaw
- Barbeques
- Handbags and bags