Even though Black Friday isn’t until November 27, enticing promotions have been flooding social media for days now. But be careful—it’s often too good to be true, warns cybercrime expert Benoît Dupont. He points out that scammers are becoming increasingly ingenious in their efforts to capitalize on the online shopping frenzy. Cloned retailer websites, misleading ads, and promotions that create a false sense of urgency: these traps are multiplying and becoming harder to spot due to the rise of artificial intelligence. “There are several approaches, but fraudsters very often start by creating fake e-commerce sites that copy the appearance of legitimate brand websites to the letter. This is even easier now thanks to artificial intelligence. Next, they use ads on social media platforms or leverage influencers—whether real or fictional ones generated by AI—to promote irresistible offers to potential victims in an attempt to convince them to visit their site and make purchases that they will never legally honor,” explains Dupont, director of the Research Chair in Cybercrime Prevention, affiliated with the University of Montreal. “AI makes their site more credible. They just have to provide the original site as a model, and, thanks to AI, they’re able to recreate and reprogram a site that’s virtually indistinguishable from the original. “AI has made their job easier and made it harder for consumers to determine whether a site is fraudulent or not based on a simple visual inspection,” he adds. So you have to find other ways to avoid falling for the scam. “First, we recommend taking your time. Second, we recommend double-checking. Third, we recommend talking it over with others before giving out your credit card number. We’re not saying don’t shop online, but rather take basic precautions,” insists Dupont, who is also a spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Coalition’s “Together Against Fraud” campaign, which brings together organizations from the finance, telecommunications, and technology sectors, as well as law enforcement and the government. When he talks about “slowing down,” he’s referring to limited-time offers that play on consumer psychology. “One piece of advice is to pause, because fraudsters often create a sense of urgency by telling you, for example: ‘You can buy the latest iPhone at 30 per cent off the regular price, but you only have a few hours.’” “In that case, it’s almost certain that it’s not a legitimate offer,” warns Dupont. He strongly suggests researching prices beforehand to realize that paying only 30 per cent of the normally listed price is unusual. “You have to resist the temptation to get a great deal because that significantly increases the chances that it’s a scam. You need to use other verification methods,” says Dupont. Before making any purchase, he recommends pasting the website’s URL into Google along with a keyword like “scam” or “fraud.” “You’ll immediately see if the site has already been reported. If you suspected it was a fraudulent site, this will confirm your initial assessment. If you’re still unsure, talk to others about it; ask someone else to check out the site to get a second opinion.” Another way to distinguish scams from real deals is to bookmark legitimate sites and not necessarily rely on ads on social media platforms, says the professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Criminology. The Most Widespread Form of Fraud Mr. Dupont hopes that this advice will help reduce the scale of the problem. A Leger survey conducted in February revealed that approximately 35 per cent of Canadians have been victims of online scams, such as phishing or fake websites. “In terms of volume, this is probably the most widespread form of fraud in Canada. There are obviously spikes in November with Black Friday and in December with online Christmas shopping, but the amounts lost are somewhat more limited than with investment fraud,” he reports. As of Sept. 30, Canadians had reported $535 million in fraud-related losses since the beginning of the year. Last year, the total amount was $705 million. However, less than 10 per cent of fraud cases are reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which handled more than 40,500 cases last year, “which means the actual losses are likely even higher than the figures we have,” says Dupont. He notes that it is helpful for victims to notify the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center, since “this will allow the center to share this information with its partners and thus have the fraudulent website taken down.” It is also essential to contact your financial institution or credit card issuer to dispute the transaction. Refunds are, in fact, more common than with other forms of fraud. “The amounts are often a few hundred dollars. Credit card issuers and financial institutions have procedures that are much better established than for cases of investment fraud or romance scams,” says Dupont. He encourages consumers to visit the website fraude-alerte.ca, created by the University of Montreal, which lists the most recent scams targeting Quebecers. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 14, 2026.
