Over 2,000 Holiday-Themed Fake Stores Detected Exploiting Black Friday and Festive Sales
Essential information
- Published
- 27/11/2025 19:04
- Modified
- 21/12/2025 18:17
- Tags
- 2025-11-27 black friday scams e-commerce impersonation fake online stores financial data theft holiday shopping fraud phishing social engineering typosquatting
- Related entities
- 71 observables, 10 techniques (mitre), 153 others
Description
Two clusters of holiday-themed fake online stores have been identified ahead of Black Friday and other festive sales. The first cluster includes over 750 interconnected sites using uniform holiday banners and misleading trust indicators, many impersonating Amazon. The second cluster spans a .shop ecosystem with domains mimicking well-known consumer brands. These fake stores use identical phishing kits, fake urgency tactics, and shell checkout pages to capture sensitive financial information from victims. The scams exploit the holiday shopping season when consumers are actively searching for steep discounts. The fraudulent sites are likely to activate during peak shopping periods to maximize victim traffic and transaction volume, posing significant risks to unsuspecting shoppers.