During the 2023 Holiday season, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received complaints of non-delivery and non-payment scams, resulting in $92 million in losses. Black Friday amplifies these risks as cybercriminals also tend to deploy AI-powered email attacks during this period.

During the Holiday season, cybercriminals target procurement teams with fake vendor emails that redirect payments to fraudulent accounts, impersonating trusted suppliers when staff rush to process orders. AI enables perfect replication of vendor communications by matching their writing styles, formatting, and technical language. As transaction volumes spike and verification steps get bypassed, these sophisticated attacks exploit peak shopping chaos.

Business email compromise campaigns simultaneously target finance teams processing bulk orders, employee gift purchases, and year-end procurement. International operations face coordinated attacks as criminals leverage the global influence of US shopping periods, striking organizations regardless of location.

When successful, these breaches trigger cascading operational disruptions. The fraud investigations halt procurement, IT resources shift to incident response, and compliance violations occur when customer data gets exposed. The combination of direct losses, recovery costs, and reputational damage makes Black Friday one of the most dangerous periods for organizational security.

Black Friday scams have evolved from simple fraud into sophisticated operations and can be categorized as:

AI-enabled cyberattacks analyze behavior patterns to customize phishing campaigns. For instance, machine learning processes social media activity and purchase history to craft personalized lures. Similarly, natural language processing generates flawless prose that mirrors legitimate retailer communications. This level of personalization achieves click-through rates that are many times higher than those of generic phishing attempts, overwhelming security teams during peak shopping periods.

AI tools create thousands of fake retail sites featuring dynamic pricing and professional interfaces. Also, cybercriminals register lookalike domains months before Black Friday, building search engine rankings and social media presence to appear legitimate when shopping peaks. These sites exploit common typos like "arnazon.com" for Amazon, lack HTTPS encryption, and harvest both payment information and personal data while processing transactions.

Cybercriminals create convincing fake storefronts that process payments without any intention of delivering products, often using stolen business credentials and sophisticated website templates. These operations manipulate package tracking to show items perpetually "in transit" while coordinating with physical theft rings that monitor delivery schedules, creating multi-layered fraud.

Attackers masquerade as trusted financial institutions and shipping carriers during peak transaction periods, exploiting the urgency and volume of Black Friday communications to bypass normal scrutiny. These campaigns leverage official logos, formatting, and language patterns while creating false deadlines that pressure recipients into immediate action without verification through proper channels.

Sophisticated phishing campaigns target email credentials knowing that password reuse patterns provide access to corporate financial systems and payment platforms. These attacks deploy convincing authentication pages that capture login information while seamlessly forwarding users to legitimate sites.

Criminals exploit the untraceable nature of gift cards by creating fake vendor invoices or impersonating executives requesting bulk purchases for "client gifts" or "employee rewards." Once the gift card codes are shared, funds become immediately irreversible with no transaction protection or recovery options, making this the preferred payment method for advanced attacks.

Fraudsters impersonate major carriers including USPS, UPS, and FedEx with notifications claiming packages require additional fees, customs payments, or address confirmation to complete delivery. These messages contain either malware-laden attachments disguised as shipping labels or links to credential-harvesting sites that steal both login information and payment card details while appearing to process legitimate tracking requests.

Understanding each of these categories enables security teams to implement targeted defenses and train employees on specific threat indicators.

Recognizing deception indicators helps prevent victimization by enabling the early detection of fraudulent operations. Here are some of the evident signs of Black Friday Scams:

• Visual Red Flags: Poor website design quality, pixelated logos, inconsistent formatting, and obvious spelling or grammatical errors serve as immediate fraud indicators that legitimate retailers would never display during their most important sales period.

• URL Irregularities: Fraudulent domains mimic legitimate sites through deceptive formatting designed to bypass casual inspection. Official retailers tend to maintain simple, memorable addresses without unnecessary complexity or confusion, which can be the main differential point.

• Security Gaps: Missing HTTPS encryption protocols and absent padlock icons indicate sites that transmit payment data without protection. Similarly, unbelievable discounts signal too-good-to-be-true scams that specifically target bargain hunters.

• Manipulation Tactics: Countdown timers displaying minutes remaining, fake inventory warnings showing "only 2 left in stock," demands for immediate wire transfers or cryptocurrency payments, and claims of exclusive access create artificial urgency that deliberately bypasses rational decision-making processes.

Understanding organizational vulnerability patterns enables targeted protection strategies for high-risk business functions. For instance, the procurement teams processing high-volume transactions face elevated threats, particularly the staff who prioritize speed over verification during peak periods.

Remote work compounds these risks as employees access corporate systems from unsecured networks while managing vendor relationships. Companies using automated procurement platforms expose extensive financial data through API integrations with potentially compromised suppliers. Additionally, organizations onboarding new vendors during Holiday rushes often skip thorough vetting processes that established relationships undergo.

Additionally, technology equipment, office supplies, and corporate gift purchases dominate B2B fraud categories through fake invoices mimicking legitimate vendor communications. Supply chain attacks exploit these purchasing patterns by targeting routine orders that bypass standard approval workflows.

Organizations must implement multi-layered defenses before Black Friday begins, combining technical controls with employee preparedness. These strategies prevent both direct financial losses and supply chain compromises that occur during peak purchasing periods.

• Deploy corporate cards equipped with advanced fraud protection features and virtual single-use card numbers that expire after each transaction, limiting exposure from compromised payment data.

• Enforce MFA across all corporate systems with hardware tokens providing superior protection compared to SMS-based verification, which remains vulnerable to SIM swapping and interception attacks.

• Update all systems, applications, and firmware before shopping season traffic surges create opportunities for exploitation, ensuring patches address known vulnerabilities that attackers specifically target during Black Friday chaos.

• Restrict all financial transactions to zero-trust network architectures with mandatory VPN connections that encrypt data flows, preventing interception attempts while monitoring for lateral movement that indicates compromise within supposedly secure perimeters.

• Maintain comprehensive databases of verified vendor contacts with mandatory callback procedures that confirm payment change requests through established communication channels independent of email.

• Deliver targeted security awareness training that includes realistic phishing simulations mimicking actual Black Friday scams, reinforcing vigilance through practical exercises rather than theoretical warnings.

• Establish clear reporting procedures through dedicated abuse mailboxes that enable rapid threat identification.

• Ensure IT teams receive immediate alerts about suspicious communications, and create feedback loops where employees learn from reported incidents without fear of punishment for near-misses.

Swift, structured response minimizes damage when scams succeed by containing breaches before they spread and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Here are a few steps that organizations can follow immediately after detection of a possible fraud:

• Activate response teams with a defined command structure and escalation paths.

• Preserve evidence, including logs and headers, for forensic analysis while maintaining the chain of custody.

• Brief stakeholders using unified messaging that prevents confusion.

• Report incidents to the relevant regulatory authorities in accordance with jurisdictional requirements.

• Address vulnerabilities through emergency patches and configuration changes.

• Elevate monitoring using behavioral analytics to detect secondary attacks.

• Document incident scope, response effectiveness, and implemented improvements for executive reporting.

Legal security solutions often struggle to detect AI-generated attacks that perfectly mimic legitimate Black Friday communications. Static rules fail against rapidly evolving tactics deployed when employees' guards drop during the Holiday excitement. That’s why you need to review your email security program before the peak season begins. Reminding employees about risks helps, but technology must provide primary protection when human vigilance fails.

Abnormal's behavioral AI understands normal communication patterns across your organization, identifying subtle anomalies in sender behavior, language, and timing.

Ready to protect your organization from sophisticated Black Friday scams? Get a personalized demo to see how Abnormal strengthens defenses against AI-powered Holiday attacks.