Watch out for Black Friday scams.
As the Black Friday weekend draws closer, American shoppers say they're going to be on the hunt for online deals, while also keeping an eye out for cyberscammers.
According to a survey released Friday by the cybersecurity company McAfee, 89% of Americans plan to shop online during the holiday season and 65% say they plan to do at least some of it during the long weekend that starts on Black Friday and runs through Cyber Monday.
With inflation still on the rise and many Americans looking to tighten their budgets, experts predict that more people will be on the hunt for deals as the holiday season gets underway. That could make online shoppers more likely fall for bogus offers on must-have holiday items that are just too good to be true.
The survey results back up that prediction, with 84% of Americans surveyed saying that they'll be hunting harder for deals than in years past in light of inflation, and 38% saying they'll be more likely to immediately jump on what looks like a good deal.
Scam email volume is already on the rise. Over the past month, McAfee researchers say the volume of unsolicited Black Friday emails has jumped nearly five fold, while Christmas-related emails have more than tripled.
On the upside, shoppers are also increasingly aware that scammers are out there. Seventy eight percent of those surveyed say they think scammers are more prevalent during the holiday season, while 58% say they will be more alert to the possibility of fake messages.
That could be because a significant number of Americans say they've fallen victim to holiday scams before. Thirty one percent of those surveyed admitted being scammed while holiday shopping, while 58% of those people say they lost money as a result.
Most of those surveyed also worry that artificial intelligence tools could be a game-changer this year, with 88% saying they think the use of AI by cybercriminals is impacting the amount and types of online scams during the holiday season.
In addition, 45% of those polled say they expect that this year's scam emails and messages will be more believable than ever as a result of AI, and 38% think AI tools will allow cybercriminals to create more, and more convincing, deepfake scams.Â
McAfee's survey was conducted online earlier this month and polled 7,128 adults in the US, Australia, India, UK, France, Germany and Japan.
