November 10, 2026

Green banner warning about too-good-to-be-true online deal scam

The ad finds you at 9:40 on a Tuesday night. A designer wool coat you'd actually wear. Usually $499. Tonight, $79. A little timer counts down in the corner. "Only 12 left at this price." The site is clean, the photos are beautiful, and the reviews say things like "came faster than expected, fits perfectly!"

You check out in under a minute. Then one of three things happens.

The Three Endings

  • Nothing arrives. Emails bounce. The site vanishes after Black Friday. Your $79 is gone and there's nobody to ask.
  • Something arrives, and it's not the coat. It's a thin polyester thing from overseas worth about $4, and the "return policy" requires shipping it back at your expense to an address that doesn't accept mail.
  • The store was never a store. It was a card-collection page with product photos stolen from a real brand. Your number is sold within hours, and the fraudulent charges start before the "order" would have shipped.

The Tells

  • A price nobody else can match. If a real brand's coat is $499 everywhere and one site has it for $79, that site doesn't have the coat. Deep discounts exist, but 80% off from an unknown store is a warning, not a perk.
  • Manufactured pressure. Countdown timers, "only 12 left," "37 people are viewing this." Real stores use these too, but scam stores use them harder, because hurry is what stops you from checking.
  • A store that appeared this month. Look for an About page with a real address and a phone number that connects to a person. Fake stores have neither, or they have ones copied from a real business.
  • Payment by Zelle, Venmo, wire, crypto, or gift card. These cannot be reversed. A legitimate retailer takes credit cards. A scam store steers you toward the methods that can't be undone.
  • Reviews that all sound the same. Dozens of five-star reviews posted on the same day, with the same phrasing, and no complaints at all. Real stores have some grumbling.

The 60-Second Store Check

Before you buy from any store you haven't used before, do three things. First, read the address bar: is it the brand's real site, or a lookalike with an extra word or a strange ending? Second, search the store's name plus "scam" or "reviews" and read what comes up beyond the first result. Third, look for the About and Contact pages and see whether there's a real business behind them.

If any of those come up empty, walk away. The coat will still be on sale somewhere real.

Credit Beats Debit. Every Time.

This is the single most protective shopping habit there is. When you pay with a credit card, the bank's money is on the line, and you can dispute a charge that turns out to be fraud. When you pay with a debit card, it's your actual money leaving your actual account, and getting it back is slower, harder, and not guaranteed. For online shopping, especially from stores you don't know, use credit. If you don't have one, many banks offer virtual card numbers that limit the damage.

If You Already Bought From a Fake

Call your card company, explain that the merchant appears fraudulent, and ask to dispute the charge. Do it now rather than waiting to see if the item arrives. If you paid by Zelle, wire, or gift card, contact that provider immediately, and know that recovery is unlikely, which is precisely why the next purchase should be on a credit card. Watch your statements for a couple of months, and if you used a password on that site that you use anywhere else, change it.

The Work Version

Two things. If you shop on your work laptop, a bad site lands on a company machine, and a card-harvesting page can just as easily be a malware page. Same rules, higher stakes. And the countdown-timer trick has a business cousin: the vendor email saying your software license "expires today" with a link to renew, or the invoice marked "final notice." Manufactured urgency is manufactured urgency. Slow down, verify, and remember the Call-Back Rule.

Want your team practiced at recognizing pressure tactics before Black Friday, and before the year-end invoice rush? Book 20 minutes with me here. Peace of Mind, No Geek-Speak.

Big U Computers, LLC. Personal Service, Peace of Mind, No Geek-Speak, and We Won't Hold You Hostage. That's the promise.