Black Friday 2024 averaged 72 new Internet scam threats per hour. How to deal with them in 2025?

‍Celebratory dates are a fundamental part of retail sales strategies throughout the year. Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Father's Day, in addition to periods when stores offer discounts, such as Consumer Week and, especially, Black Friday, in November, are expected by both companies and customers.

However, a study by Branddi, brand protection company in the digital environment, based on your own data, it shows that It is also on these dates that the new threats of Internet scams become more intense.

In the last twelve months, for example, The heats up Black Friday last year and Consumer Day 2025 were the dates with the most threats detected by the company. They occurred not only in the periods of the dates in question (November and March), but in the previous months, such as October and February, in both cases.

On Black Friday last year, considering the two months surrounding the date, more than 105,567 thousand new threats were detected. That means about 1.7 thousand a day or 72 an hour.

The phenomenon was repeated on the last Consumer Day: 100,518,000 threats in the two months that marked the commercial date.

This happens, in the analysis of Diego Daminelli, CEO of Branddi, because these are times when there are more people looking for products and services to give gifts. As a result, companies invest in campaigns on social networks and e-commerce platforms, in addition to increasing or creating ads in marketplaces, to attract consumers.

“But in the midst of this movement, advertisements, profiles, or even fake sites are also growing, which They take advantage of the buzz to try to deceive people. And they have still had some success, unfortunately,” says Daminelli.

In fact, research conducted by Branddi in August showed that 82% of customers have encountered Internet scam attempts — most (25%) of them involving campaigns similar to those of the original stores.

Even more problematic: 37.4% of consumers have, in fact, fallen into a scam of this type recently. “When a consumer is misled by a false advertisement, trust in the true brand is immediately shaken. Shielding digital reputation is no longer a differential, it's survival”, he analyzes.

The increase in consumers' attention to scams can also be seen in online search behavior. Between July and September 2025, Google searches for the term “black fraud” grew 127%, according to search engine data. For Diego Daminelli, this increase is a clear indication that the public is more attentive, but also more suspicious. “This type of search reveals a legitimate concern of consumers, who are trying to protect themselves, but it also shows that misinformation or insecurity are still very present,” he analyzes.

Mas How can businesses prepare to avoid this type of problem?

 AVOIDING SCAMS ON BLACK FRIDAY

Daminelli says that the first thing to do is to create any customer service channel. “It can act as a preventive measure, but mainly as a means of listening to consumers who see a scam attempt involving the brand name or those who actually fall for one,” he comments.

In the same way, Brands can now prepare guides to help people not confuse fake ads or profiles with the originals. This goes from the scope of Posts on social networks to communications through messages such as e-mail and WhatsApp.

“It is important to reinforce the correct brand profile on the networks at all times, but not only: companies can help customers find out if they are actually buying from the official store”, says Daminelli, recalling recent campaigns carried out by banking institutions, for example.

Brands can also create ways to constant and direct communication with a specific customer base, sending Newsletters that, in addition to the discounts or conditions offered on Black Friday, remind them of the possibilities of scams.

Assembling pieces of social networks that are more difficult to copy also helps, although consumers will not always be able to differentiate original ads from fake ones. “Still, criminals won't stop using dates like Black Friday to attract victims. It's up to brands to get ahead of themselves, protecting their customers and their own digital reputation. That's exactly where Branddi's role comes in”, concludes Daminelli.

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