According to research by cyber security company guardioThere has been a 30-fold increase in shopping scams and fraudulent text messages in the last month. Even before Thanksgiving weekend, November is the top month for online scams in 2025.
Guardio also saw an increase in the number of unique email addresses promoting Black Friday-related campaigns last week – by more than 500 percent.
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What is the reason for the increase? company indicates Research Earlier this year the organization Anti-Phishing Working Group found that 76 percent of phishing websites now use AI-generated content.
AI is not only helping scammers create content for their schemes, but it is also helping scammers carry out more convincing frauds.
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The usual telltale signs of a scam – spelling or grammatical errors, lack of familiarity with the company and its products it is trying to emulate – are on their way. With AI, scammers can completely mimic entire websites for their phishing campaigns.
AI-generated voices and videos can also provide scammers with credible impersonations of company employees. In short, AI helps scammers appear authentic.
Guardio’s research found that bad actors targeting Black Friday shoppers have focused on certain popular brand names over the past few months. Those brands include AT&T, Amazon, Apple (virtual and brick-and-mortar stores), Loews, Verizon, Costco, Walmart and Kroger.
An example of a scam text message format used by bad actors.
Credit: Guardio
Why Target Black Friday and Cyber Monday? That’s not just because more consumers are spending online during that period. The rush to obtain limited-time deals, along with the general distraction of the holidays, results in consumers becoming more susceptible to scams.
Guardio says the most common fraud tactic is the “instant account alert.” These are text messages that inform the target that their Amazon account has been suspended, or that their Verizon bill payment has been declined. Recipients may be more willing to fall for these scams because they want to fix the problem in time for the holidays.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), US consumers lost more than $432 million to online shopping scams in 2024 – and those losses will see an increase in 2025.
The easiest way to avoid scams is to never click on any links received via email or text message. Instead, visit these companies’ websites directly from your web browser or through their official mobile apps.
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