Beneath the shine of promotions, risks intensify. Each year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday trigger a sharp rise in scams, counterfeit goods, and brand impersonation. A short season, but increasingly critical for rights holders.
Black Friday returns each year with the same promise: melting prices, overflowing carts, and a digital world glowing for a few days of frenzy. For consumers, it has become a modern ritual. For fraudsters, it is fertile ground. They know that during this short period of time traffic surges, financial flows accelerate, and our usual caution weakens.
For several years now, authorities have observed this seasonal tension. Europol, in its Intellectual Property Crime Threat Assessment 2022, notes that this promotional period (Black Friday and Cyber Monday) is a moment when counterfeit goods circulate more easily[1].
In Australia, the National Anti-Scam Centre issues a clear warning: “Scammers love Black Friday sales too”[2]. In its most recent annual report, the Australian Federal Police urges the public to beware of fake delivery carriers, fraudulent shipping notifications, and pages that imitate major retailers’ interfaces with unsettling accuracy[3]. Across the globe, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre observes the same choreography and multiplies its alerts: fake websites, false promotions, and deceptive sponsored ads that appear and vanish as quickly as the flash sales they mimic[4].
In the same vein, the report 10 Black Friday Scams to Watch Out for in 2025 highlights a 250% increase in fake shopping websites in the weeks leading up to the event and a 36% rise in phishing attacks[5]. Fraudsters no longer simply copy, they industrialize. They clone entire pages, deploy automated generation tools, and boost their operations through artificial intelligence. Amazon and eBay are among their preferred targets.
To this we can add the dynamics already described in OECD and EUIPO reports: massive distribution through small parcels, high-risk product categories (toys, cosmetics, car parts, batteries) frequently sold online, and a logistical ecosystem that makes detection difficult[6]. Nothing in the global data contradicts the impression that Black Friday acts as a multiplier: more traffic, more volume, and therefore more vulnerabilities.
For rights holders, this moment is anything but trivial. It concentrates, within a few days, the weak signals that usually unfold across several weeks:
the appearance of opportunistic domain names combining brands with promotional vocabulary;
the reactivation of dormant clone sites;
a spike in unauthorized listings on marketplaces; and
the emergence of dubious sponsored campaigns designed to capture a hurried, distracted, or simply trusting audience.
The appropriate response remains familiar, but must be swift. Monitor, detect, intervene. Map out impersonation attempts. Track new domain name registrations. Watch marketplaces closely. Document fraudulent sites before they disappear. Nothing heroic—just consistency and technical discipline. Because Black Friday is not only a commercial peak. It is also, discreetly, a stress test for brands: a way to measure their vigilance, the solidity of their digital presence, and their ability to protect their customers.
At IP Twins, we support rights holders throughout these critical periods by combining domain name monitoring, detection of fraudulent content on marketplaces and social media, and targeted actions to remove counterfeit listings, deceptive websites, and abusive uses of trademarks.
Notes
[1] Europol, Intellectual Property Crime Threat Assessment 2022, Europol, 2022, p. 13 : Europol.europa.eu. The section on seasonal patterns explicitly refers to promotional events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday as periods during which counterfeit goods circulate more easily.
[2] National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC, Royaume-Uni), “Black Friday warning: shoppers urged to protect themselves online as figures reveal rising losses to scams”, 18 November 2024: nscs.gov.uk.
[3] National Anti-Scam Centre (ACCC, Australie), “Australians report nearly $260M in losses as shopping scams surge”, 18 November 2025 : « Scammers love Black Friday sales too » : a.ccc.gov.au.
[4] Australian Federal Police (AFP), “Beware of Black Friday and Cyber Monday scams”, 28 November 2024: afp.gov.au.
[5] NordVPN, “10 Black Friday Scams to Watch Out for in 2025”, 18 November 2025 : Nordvpn.com.
[6] OECD/EUIPO (2022), Dangerous Fakes: Trade in Counterfeit Goods that Pose Health, Safety and Environmental Risks, Illicit Trade, OECD Publishing, Paris: https://doi.org/10.1787/117e352b-en; euipo.europa.eu.