Black Friday 2025: How to shield your brand against digital scams

A Black Friday 2025 It comes with the promise of record sales, but also with a warning: digital scams have never been so sophisticated.

In recent years, phishing, typosquatting, and profile cloning attempts skyrocketed just in the week of November 28th. The consumer, pressured by the urgency of promotions, becomes more vulnerable. A scam associated with your brand is enough to compromise the trust built in months.

So, it's not enough to think about discounts and marketing campaigns, it's necessary to structure monitoring processes, rapid response, and the use of tools capable of detecting threats in real time.

Check out now the complete guide to protect your company and turn Black Friday into an opportunity, not a risk!

Why is Black Friday the target of scams?

Black Friday concentrates, in a few days, a Abnormal peak in traffic and online purchases which increases the “noise” in the buying journey (more emails, advertisements, and new sales pages) and reduces consumer attention.

In 2024, Kaspersky identified more than 38 million phishing attempts linked to stores, payment systems, and banks between January and October alone; in the first two weeks of November, there were already 198 thousand Black Friday-themed spam messages circulating, a sign that scammers are warming up their engines before the promotion day itself. 

In Brazil, in addition to classic cybercrime (phishing, fake sites, account hijacking), there is “Black Fraud”: perception of price makeup the day before to simulate “discounts” the next day.

In 2024, survey from Ipsos showed that 64% of Brazilians believe in this practice, which creates a broth of mistrust and makes consumers more vulnerable to “unmissable offers” of dubious origin.

Summing up the “why” the date is so targeted for digital scams:

• Peak attention and haste (urgency, scarcity, and countdown) → more impulsive clicks on links and ads;
• Temporary explosion of new domains, advertisements, and emails → difficult to distinguish legitimate from fake;
• Higher average ticket in coveted categories (electronics, computers, cell phones), which increases the scammer's ROI per transaction;
• Marketplace effect (third-party sellers and newly created stores) + instant payments → short window to stop the scam;
• Information asymmetry: consumers have no clear reference to “real price”, facilitating both “super discount” phishing and price makeup.

What are the main threats?

Many consumers end up falling into digital traps that mimic stores, advertisements, and even official communications from major brands. To understand the risk, take a look at the main threats surrounding this date:

Fake sites

Criminals create pages identical to well-known stores to steal data and payments. Domains often mimic legitimate addresses, confusing the consumer.

Phishing

Emails, SMS, and messages on social networks promise unrealistic discounts and lead to malicious links. The purpose is to collect passwords, personal and financial data.

Misleading ads

Fake search engine or social media campaigns advertise non-existent products or products with manipulated prices. The scam leads the user to pay for something that will never be delivered.

Brand Misuse

Logos and visual identity of well-known companies are copied to convey credibility. This disguise increases the consumer's chance of falling into fraud.

What is the financial and image impact of digital scams?

Cases in which consumers buy counterfeit products or are victims of scams generate direct losses for brands, which may include:

• Diverted revenue (sales that “belong” to the scam instead of the legitimate company);
• Crisis management costs;
• Returns and refunds;
• Extra expenses for security, monitoring, and lawsuits.

In Brazil, it is estimated that in 2023 alone the losses attributable to the counterfeiting of products reached R$ 410 billion, with 35% of those sales taking place online, according to Branddi data.

But the most expensive scam is the trust scam: studies show that, after a scam with apparent involvement of a brand, 6 out of 10 Brazilians say they stop buying this brand.

This effect generates silent bleeding: customers stop returning, share negative experiences, and reputation is permanently shaken.

While many scams evade initial defenses, some brands have already demonstrated that monitoring and reactive action break the chain of the scam before it wreaks havoc.

Sebrae, for example, was the target of a scam that used its brand to offer false credit via WhatsApp. The institution issued an official alert and actions to remove fake profiles as soon as it identified the first cases.

How to monitor the brand's reputation during this period?

We already have means of prevention and containment that help brands face the increasingly frequent digital scams during Black Friday:

Monitoring mentions and keywords

Fraud often leaves traces on forums, small blogs, or newly created pages. To get ahead of time, set up the Google Alerts with variations of your brand name (including typos and slogans) and receive Real-time notifications in email.

Brand protection on ads and domains

Scammers use typosquatting (similar domains, such as “my-brand.com” instead of “mybrand.com”) or paid advertisements that link to fake sites. To protect yourself, use tools from Brand protection like Branddi, who track new domain registrations and misleading campaigns.

Monitoring on social networks

Fake profiles at social networks they usually imitate profile photos, name, and even brand language. To detect these cases early, set up social listening with tools like MLabs, Sprinklr, or Hootsuite to track mentions and variations of the company's name in real time.

Also create an internal protocol to quickly report fake profiles directly on the platform (Instagram, Facebook and TikTok), gathering evidence such as prints and links.

How about a prevention checklist? Steps to shield yourself before Black Friday.

In closing, here's what you need to know to protect your brand against scams and protect the trust of your customers:

1. Set up Google Alerts with brand name, variations, and common errors ✅
2. Monitor forums, blogs, and new pages with Brand24 or Mention ✅
3. Use Branddi to track suspicious domains and fake ads ✅
4. Enable social listening in MLabs, Sprinklr, or Hootsuite ✅
5. Establish protocol for quick reporting of fake profiles ✅
6. Ensure verification seal on official brand profiles ✅

Did you like the tips to protect yourself on Black Friday 2025? The protection to protect your brand starts with the right tool to identify online fraud.

Major brands are already taking advantage of Branddi's intelligent protection! Talk to one of our experts now and don't leave your customers in the hands of scammers.

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