Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days lands on 6–7 October, Black Friday follows on 27 November, and Christmas shopping fills most of the weeks in between. It's the busiest stretch of the UK retail calendar — and, predictably, the busiest stretch for scam shopping sites too.
Most of the warnings you'll see this autumn focus on getting the best price. This one is about something that matters more: making sure the “deal” you're about to pay for actually exists, and that the site you're paying it to is real.
According to Action Fraud figures reported by the National Cyber Security Centre, UK shoppers lost more than £11.5 million to online shopping scams in the November-to-January period covering one recent Black Friday and Christmas season — up from £10.6 million the year before, with an average loss of £695 per victim. Social media was involved in 43% of reports, and online marketplaces featured in a further 19%. Separately, UK Finance's Annual Fraud Report put total UK fraud losses at £1.17 billion in 2024, with unauthorised card fraud alone up 14% year-on-year to over 3.13 million cases. None of that is scaremongering — it's the reason your bank asks you to double-check unfamiliar payments, and it's worth ten seconds of your attention before you click “pay now” on a site you've never used before.
Why this matters more right now
Scam shopping sites don't spread themselves evenly across the year. They cluster around exactly the moments when genuine discounts are everywhere and shoppers are primed to move fast: the run-up to a big sales event, the sales event itself, and the weeks before Christmas when people are buying gifts under time pressure and often for someone else, so a wrong or missing parcel is even more stressful to sort out.
That's precisely the window opening now. A search for a specific product at a specific discount is far more likely, over the next ten weeks, to surface a copycat site than it would be in a quiet month like February. The advice below isn't about avoiding deals — genuine ones are everywhere in this period too — it's about knowing which ten seconds of checking separate a real saving from a lost payment.
The warning signs a shopping website is fake
None of these on their own proves a site is fraudulent. Together, or even two or three at once, they're worth pausing for.
The web address doesn't quite match
Scam sites frequently use a domain that looks almost right — an extra word, a swapped letter, or a well-known brand name paired with an unfamiliar ending (.shop, .store, .xyz rather than .co.uk or .com). If you reached the site through a search ad or a social media post rather than typing the address yourself, check it against the retailer's actual website before doing anything else.
Prices that are “too good” even for a sale event
A genuine 20–30% off during Prime Big Deal Days or Black Friday is entirely normal. A brand-new games console, a premium handbag, or a top-spec phone at 70–80% off, sold by a site you've never heard of, is a different thing. Scam sites rely on the fact that sale season makes an unrealistic price look almost plausible, because everything around it really is discounted.
No real contact details or returns policy
A legitimate UK retailer will have a proper returns policy, a way to actually contact them (not just a contact form that goes nowhere), and usually a registered company number somewhere in the footer. If you can't find any of this — or the “About Us” page is a single vague paragraph — treat that as a genuine red flag rather than an oversight.
Payment options that skip buyer protection
This is one of the most reliable signals. If a site only accepts direct bank transfer, or pushes you hard towards a payment method with no chargeback protection, be cautious — legitimate retailers overwhelmingly offer card payment or a recognised service like PayPal, both of which give you a route to a refund if something goes wrong. A seller actively steering you away from those options is steering you away from your own protection, not offering you a discount for the trouble.
Pressure tactics and fake urgency
Countdown timers, “only 2 left in stock,” and pop-ups claiming someone else just bought the item are common on entirely legitimate sites too, so this one is more about degree than presence. If the urgency feels engineered to stop you thinking — especially combined with any of the signs above — slow down deliberately. A genuine deal that's actually ending in ten minutes is rare; a genuine deal that's still there tomorrow is common.
Reviews that feel off
A handful of reviews, all five stars, all posted within the same week, using strikingly similar phrasing, is a pattern worth noticing. Check whether the site has any presence beyond its own review widget — a Trustpilot profile with a real spread of ratings and dated reviews over months or years is a far stronger signal than a curated block of five-star quotes on the homepage.
How to actually check before you buy
A few quick habits cover most of the risk without slowing down your shopping in any meaningful way:
- Search the exact site name plus “reviews” or “scam” before you buy from anywhere unfamiliar. If other shoppers have had a bad experience, it usually surfaces within the first page of results.
- Check the padlock and the address bar, but don't over-trust it — a padlock only confirms the connection is encrypted, not that the seller is legitimate. Scam sites can and do have valid security certificates.
- Pay by credit card where you can, since UK credit card purchases over £100 are covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, which makes the card provider jointly liable if something goes wrong. Debit cards have some protection through chargeback schemes, but it's weaker and not a legal right in the same way.
- Look up the company, not just the website, using Companies House if it's a UK-registered business. A retailer with no findable company record behind a UK-facing site is a meaningful gap.
- Trust your instinct if something feels rushed. Scam sites are built to short-circuit the pause where you'd normally think something through. Giving yourself that pause back is often the single most effective check on this list.
Voucher and discount code scams specifically
This one's directly relevant to how PrimeVoucher works, so it's worth covering explicitly rather than assuming it's obvious. A genuine discount code takes money off a real product on a real retailer's checkout page. A scam version usually works differently: you're offered an unusually large “exclusive” code in exchange for entering card details on a page that isn't the retailer's own site at all, or you're asked to pay a small “verification fee” to unlock a voucher.
A legitimate voucher code should never require payment to reveal or activate it, and it should only ever be entered at checkout on the retailer's own website — never on a third-party page that then asks for your card details directly. If a “deal” involves handing over payment information anywhere other than the retailer's own checkout, that's not a discount, whatever it's labelled as. PrimeVoucher's own codes work the standard, safe way: you copy a code and use it at the retailer's checkout, on the retailer's own domain, the same way you would if you'd found it in a magazine or a newsletter.
What to do if you've already paid
If you've made a payment and are now unsure about a site, act quickly rather than waiting to see if the item turns up:
- Contact your bank or card provider straight away and explain you may have paid a fraudulent seller. For card payments over £100, ask specifically about a Section 75 claim; for debit cards or smaller amounts, ask about a chargeback.
- Report it to Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk), the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. It won't necessarily get your money back on its own, but it feeds into the data that gets scam sites investigated and taken down.
- Change your password for that site and for any other account using the same password, since a fake shopping site is also a plausible way to harvest login details.
- Don't send further payment if you're contacted afterwards asking for an additional fee to “release” your order, arrange delivery, or cover customs — this is an extremely common follow-up scam once someone knows a payment has already gone through.
A quick pre-checkout checklist
Before you enter card details on a site you haven't used before, run through this in the time it takes to read it:
- Does the web address exactly match the retailer's real domain?
- Is the discount realistic against what else is on sale this week, or is it a dramatic outlier?
- Can you find a genuine contact method and returns policy?
- Are you paying by card or a protected payment method, not bank transfer?
- Do the reviews look like they were written by real people over time, not all at once?
- Are you entering payment details on the retailer's own site, not a third-party voucher page?
If all six check out, you're on solid ground. If two or three don't, that's worth treating as a decision, not a shrug.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if an online shop is legitimate in the UK?
Check that the web address exactly matches the retailer you think you're buying from, look for a genuine returns policy and contact details, confirm the company on Companies House if it claims to be UK-registered, and pay by card rather than bank transfer so you have recourse if something goes wrong.
Is it safe to buy something advertised on social media?
Not automatically. Action Fraud data shows social media is involved in a large share of shopping scam reports, precisely because ads can link to a copycat site rather than the real retailer. Treat a social media ad as a starting point to search for, not a guarantee of legitimacy — check the destination site independently before paying.
What's the safest way to pay for something online?
A credit card for purchases over £100 gives you Section 75 protection under the Consumer Credit Act, making your card provider jointly liable if the goods don't arrive or aren't as described. Debit cards and services like PayPal offer some protection too, but a direct bank transfer to an unfamiliar seller offers the least protection of any common payment method.
Can a discount code itself be a scam?
Yes — mainly in two forms: a “code” that requires you to pay a fee to unlock it, or one offered on a third-party page that asks for your card details directly rather than sending you to the retailer's own checkout. A genuine code is free to use and only ever entered on the retailer's own site.
What should I do if I think I've already paid a scam site?
Contact your bank or card provider immediately to ask about a chargeback or Section 75 claim, report the site to Action Fraud, and change your password for that site and anywhere else you've reused it. Don't send any further payment if you're later asked for an additional fee to release the order.
Checking a site is genuine takes less time than finding the deal in the first place. Once you're confident a retailer is legitimate, PrimeVoucher's full list of UK stores is a safe way to check for a genuine, verified discount code before you check out — and our guide to stacking discount codes with cashback covers how to combine savings properly once you know you're buying from somewhere real. If you're shopping Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days this October, the same checks apply just as much on the day itself as they do to any unfamiliar link that lands in your inbox beforehand.