January sales: a bargain too good to be true?

Police are wishing a happy New Year to the county and taking the opportunity to remind residents of the potential pitfalls of online fraud.

Inspector Matt Bennison said: “Lincs Police Prevention Hub wants to remind everybody that whilst the January sales can be a great time to grab a bargain we still need to be wary of scams and frauds as criminals will use this busy opportunity to exploit and steal from people taking advantage of the reduced prices.”

Here’s what you need to know to keep yourself safe in the sales in 2025.

Top tips

When buying online do some research to find out what a fair or competitive price is for similar goods in the same condition; if the offer sounds too good to miss out on, it might not really exist, be fake or of inferior quality.

Fraudsters often use stock images, other people’s images, or use the same image on multiple websites/adverts. You can check if images appear elsewhere on the internet through websites like TinEye or reverse.photos.

Check the seller or buyer’s review history and feedback from other reviewers. Beware of accounts that may have been set up very recently with lots of favourable feedback that sounds similar, this could be an indication of fake reviews.

Always use the site’s recommended payment site, if they have one, and read the terms and conditions to understand what you are protected for. If you pay any other way than via a recommended payment site, you may not be able to recover your money.

Where there’s no recommended payment site, paying via credit card or known third party payment providers is preferable to direct bank transfers. Check your bank statements or online account regularly.

Make sure that the website you’re buying from is genuine – and not a fake or copycat site – by typing in the address yourself and checking the spelling. Fake addresses usually vary from authentic ones with just one or two incorrect letters.

Research sellers’ and other bidders’ selling history. And bear in mind that a website ending ‘.co.uk’ doesn’t necessarily mean it’s based in the UK. Check the address of the company and the phone number.

Don’t make payment over insecure WiFi (a public WiFi or one with no password to access).

Make sure you’re making payments on a secure site. You can check the link is secure in two ways:

• there should be a padlock symbol in the browser window where you can see the site address / URL when you log in or register (beware on unfamiliar sites as this can be faked); if you’re not sure the webpage is genuine, don’t use it.; be sure that the padlock is within the address bar at the top of the screen, not on the page itself
• the web address should begin with ‘https://’; the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’

Warning signs

It can be difficult to spot a scammer among the vast majority of genuine buyers and sellers online, but there are some common ploys they use that should help you identify fraudulent advertisements:

• scammers will lure you in with ‘irresistible’ bargain prices for popular items, such as mobile phones, designer goods and vehicles that don’t really exist
• they’ll try to pressurise you into not using secure recommended payment sites and to pay via a bank transfer
• they might encourage you to transfer money immediately by offering a special discount or pressurise you by saying it’s time-limited or they have other buyers interested
• fraudsters may pressurise you to transfer payment or a holding deposit before you have seen the item(s) in person

Double your defences with 2-step verification (2SV)

Turn on 2SV and double the protection on your most important accounts, especially your email. It can be turned on in a matter of minutes – time well spent to keep the fraudsters out.

2SV can usually be found in the security settings of your account. Sometimes it’s called two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA).

2-step verification is available for most of the major online services, such as email, banking, and social media.

Find more information and guidance on 2-step verification from the gov.uk Stop! Think Fraud campaign.  

For more information

Find information and advice on online fraud.

Get Safe Online provides unbiased, practical, easy-to-understand information about online safety and security.

Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre providing a central point of contact for information about fraud and cyber crime. Call 0300 123 2040.

The National Cyber Security Centre recently revealed the rising losses resulting from scams, finding that last year this totalled £11.5 million.