Watch out for scams, fake web shops this Black Friday, police warn

The police expect that the number of online shopping fraud reports will skyrocket in the coming weeks, as scammers set up for Black Friday and Sinterklaas shopping. Especially watch out for bargains on popular products, like the PlayStation 5, which is sold out almost everywhere, Gijs van der Linden of the police said to NOS.

The popularity of online shopping increased enormously since the outbreak of the coronavirus and its accompanying lockdowns. And with that increased the number of reports of fake or fraudulent web shops, nearly doubling from 7,400 last year to over 13 thousand so far this year. Many reports involved sites pretending to sell goods, but never delivering anything. 

"We are afraid that the same thing will now happen with the PlayStation 5, for example," Van der Linden said. "There is a site where over 200 thousand PlayStation 5 orders were placed. In theory, the deliveries could still be made, but we are afraid it will never happen at all."

The police expect that fake shops were already set up over the past weeks, to make as many victims as possible in the run-up to the holidays. "You also often see them appear on Thursday evenings or on Fridays, because most people scan the internet at the weekend."