Black Friday will start at 12.01am on 28 November. (Photo: Xinhua) 
International Fraud Awareness Week, which falls between 16 and 22 November, could not be better timed as shops and consumers get ready for Black Friday on 28 November. And the scammers are also ready, with everything from AI-generated deepfakes, to near-perfect fake links and sites.
Melanie Botes, chief information officer at financial services company RCS, says criminals are combining speed, urgency and technology to make fraud harder to spot. This makes quick, practical safeguards essential.
According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners South Africa, the prevalence of fraud typically spikes during large retail events such as Black Friday – a trend RCS warns is likely to recur this year.
“Criminals constantly refine their methods, often using advanced technology to make schemes look and sound more legitimate than ever before,” says Botes. “The scams consumers face today are far more convincing than those of even a year ago, which is why constant vigilance is so important.”
Salem Nyati, consumer financial specialist at Momentum Group, says Black Friday is not merely a shopping event. “It is a masterclass in consumer psychology designed to trigger immediate gratification and override rational decision-making.”
Nyati says the best approach is to treat Black Friday as just another day in a well-planned financial year, rather than a reason to abandon prudent money management.
According to automated clearing house PayInc, shopping activity on Black Friday 2024 was well above a typical day and marginally higher than the 2023 levels. PayInc recorded that South Africans kicked off their deal hunting at midnight, with volumes up 75% compared with the same time on Thursday, but 11% down from Black Friday 2023.
Psychological tactics
Nyati warns that retailers deliberately employ three psychological tactics:
The discount effect: This is a cognitive bias that combines with loss aversion to make people feel the pain of missing out more strongly than the pleasure of gaining something, creating a perfect storm for overspending.
FOMO: Limited time offers and “while stocks last” messaging create artificial urgency, pushing consumers to make hasty decisions without proper consideration of their financial circumstances.
Scarcity marketing: Retailers exploit people’s primitive instincts to secure resources when they advertise “only 50 items left” or “24-hour flash sale”, which can lead to illogical spending decisions.
According to Lee Naik, CEO of TransUnion Africa, a 45% surge in personal loan inquiries between October and November 2024 highlighted a sobering truth: many South Africans borrowed to participate in these so-called deals.
“The ordinary South African consumer cannot sustain an unexpected shock to their personal finances,” he warns. With interest rates coming down this past year, Naik advises that people should use this shift in the interest rate cycle to build up buffers.
Nerosha Maseti, credit and banking division lead ombud at the National Financial Ombud, also sounded the alarm on a surge in credit card scams. Fraudsters tend to zero in on Black Friday shoppers using non-bank and store-branded credit cards, especially those tied to big-name retailers.
“Criminals contact cardholders by phone, impersonating representatives from these companies, and deceive unsuspecting consumers into revealing their confidential one-time pins to make unauthorised purchases at large merchants, leaving victims responsible for fraudulent charges,” she warns.
“It is crucial for cardholders to remember that no legitimate company will ever ask them to share confidential information such as card numbers, passwords or OTPs. Providing an OTP to a fraudster can result in the consumer being held liable for fraudulent purchases, leading to significant financial loss without any benefit,” Maseti says. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
