The Skepticism is Real (and Right)

That incredible “75% Off” Black Friday deal is statistically more likely to be a sophisticated marketing trick than a genuine bargain. For many years, the adrenaline-fueled rush of this shopping weekend has been built on a foundation of urgency and illusion. Savvy shoppers are finally noticing. We’ve all seen a product’s price drop dramatically, only to suspect the original price was inflated just weeks before.

This isn’t paranoia—it’s excellent consumer intuition.

We’re here to validate that feeling with hard data. According to recent research from Lightspeed Commerce Inc., a staggering 84% of shoppers already believe retailers inflate prices ahead of major sales to wildly exaggerate discounts. The fear that you’re being tricked is widespread and, in many cases, completely justified.

This post is your essential anti-scam playbook. We will expose the three most common, secret retailer tactics designed to fool you into overspending. More importantly, we will arm you with the indispensable “3-Step Price-Lock Strategy” to guarantee you only buy truly great deals.

By the end of this article, you will be prepared to shop smarter, not faster. You’ll understand the game and how to win it. Why is this critical? Because consumer advocacy data from Which? reveals a painful truth: a staggering 98% of Black Friday deals were available at the same price or cheaper at other times of the year. Don’t fall for the hype; arm yourself with the facts.

Want to know how Black Friday compares to Cyber Monday in 2025? Check out our guide on Black Friday vs Cyber Monday to see which sale actually offers the better deals.

Exposing the Three Sleight-of-Hand Black Friday Retailer Scams

Retailers are masters of psychological warfare. Their greatest weapon during the Black Friday season is the manipulation of the reference price. They don’t need to lie about the final price; they just need to lie about the original one. These three tactics are the bedrock of the “fake deal.”

A. The “Was/Now” Lie: Mastering Price Anchoring

The bold, crossed-out price next to the low “Now” price is designed to make your brain skip a step. Your eye instantly calculates the “savings,” creating a powerful psychological pull called Reference Price Anchoring. The problem? That “Was” price is often a complete fiction.

  • The Problem: Retailers anchor you to a massive, crossed-out “Was” price to make the saving feel huge, even if the item hasn’t been sold at that price for a very long time.
  • The Proof: An in-depth investigation by Which? into major retailers exposed this practice perfectly. Their analysis of 1,617 TVs found that a shocking 56% of products with a ‘was/now’ price had at least one intervening, lower price point between the current sale price and the advertised ‘was’ price. Some of these manipulative “Was” prices were a ridiculous 11 months old—not a reflection of the recent market value at all!
  • Actionable Tip: DON’T let the “Was” price guide you. It’s a marketing fiction designed to confuse you. The only price that matters is the recent, average market price of the last 90 days.

B. The MSRP Misdirection: Why RRP is Meaningless

A close cousin to the “Was/Now” trick is the reliance on RRP or MSRP. These acronyms—Recommended Retail Price or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price—are the manufacturer’s suggested prices, not the price the retailer typically charges.

  • The Problem: Retailers advertise a huge discount based on the MSRP instead of the price the retailer actually charges. The saving looks fantastic against a high reference point.
  • The Detail: The store may have never sold the item at the MSRP. For example, they take an item that usually sells for $150, say the MSRP is $250, and then “discount” it to $120. They claim a $130 saving when the real saving is only $30. This creates instant, dramatic savings on paper without sacrificing much margin in reality.
  • Actionable Tip: IGNORE the letters RRP/MSRP. They are absolutely meaningless for determining a real deal. If the retailer hasn’t sold it at that price themselves recently, the discount claim is dishonest.

C. Sale-Only SKUs & The Hidden Black Friday Price Hike

The final two tricks rely on making comparison impossible and exploiting your exhaustion.

The first is the introduction of Sale-Only SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). Retailers will stock slightly modified product variants or odd bundles that only exist for the sale. This subtle change prevents you from finding the item on comparison sites. It’s impossible to compare a “2024 Black Friday Edition X5 TV” to the standard X5 TV sold elsewhere.

The second is the most egregious: the pre-sale price hike.

  • The KnownHost Tactic: A KnownHost Study found 29% of products saw an average price hike of $51 right before the sales began, only to be “discounted” back to the normal price or slightly lower. You think you’re getting a deal, but you’re only undoing a temporary price increase.
  • The Problem of Fatigue: Promotions are stretched across the entire month of November, creating a sense of urgency mixed with consumer “deal fatigue.” Consumers get tired and overwhelmed, making them less likely to comparison-shop or research.
  • Actionable Tip: BE WARY of bundles or odd model names. If you can’t find the exact item number on a price tracker, or if the sale lasts for weeks, it’s a red flag to slow down your shopping.

Your 3-Step Price-Lock Strategy Toolkit

You now know the retailer’s game. It’s time to build your defense. This 3-Step Strategy is your “Price-Lock Toolkit”—a set of actionable steps and essential tools to ensure every Black Friday purchase you make is a certified, real deal.

Step 1: The Pre-Black Friday Wish List & Target Price

The most effective anti-impulse-buy strategy happens weeks before the sale.

  • The Strategy: Build your list now. Research the exact items you need and note down the current price (Source: Expert Strategy). This is your reference price, and it’s one the retailer can’t hide.
  • The Goal: Set a realistic Target Price for each item. For example, if a stand mixer is $200 today, you might set a Target Price of $150. If the Black Friday deal hits $160, you win by not buying the fake deal.
  • The Tool: Use Google Shopping to quickly track the current price across multiple vendors. This gives you an immediate, unbiased market average to anchor your Target Price.

Step 2: Install a Price History Tracker (The Data Doesn’t Lie)

This is the single most important tool in your kit. Price history trackers are your digital accountants, showing every price fluctuation for an item over the past year. They instantly expose the pre-sale price hike.

  • The Purpose: This tool shows the price of an item for the past year, revealing hidden price hikes and confirming all-time lows.
  • Essential Tools:
    • Amazon Shoppers: Keepa or CamelCamelCamel. These browser extensions lay the price chart directly over the Amazon page.
    • General Retailers: PriceSpy or Pricerunner. These tools let you input a product and compare prices across a huge network of online stores.
  • Expert Insight: According to the Evidence Network, a truly great deal means looking for a price that is within 5% of the all-time low or 10-15% below the 90-day average. If the “deal” is higher than the price from three months ago, it’s a fake.

Step 3: Search by Model Number, Not Product Name

This step defeats the Sale-Only SKUs trick. Retailers can use different names across different stores, but the core product number remains consistent.

  • The Strategy: Always copy the full, specific product number (e.g., LG OLED65B46LA). This is your unique identifier.
  • The Why: Generic searches are easily manipulated and prone to confusing results. Searching the model number ensures you are comparing apples to apples across all retailers and all tracking sites. If a retailer hides this number, that is a massive red flag.

Protecting Yourself from “Black Fraud Day”

The focus on price scams sometimes distracts from the even more dangerous reality: cybercrime. As one expert dubbed it, November should be called “Black Fraud Day.”

A. Consumer Rights Protection (Know the Law)

While not all regions have the same laws, knowing the consumer protections in place gives you powerful leverage.

  • Key Law (EU/UK Context): In many jurisdictions (including the EU and the UK), regulations have been updated to require businesses to set a discount based on the lowest price a product was sold for in the previous 30 days (Source: CCPC/Sweden Herald).
  • Your Power: If you see a “Was/Now” price that clearly violates this rule, you have legal grounds to dispute the misleading advertising. Knowing your rights is another essential layer of price protection.

B. Spotting the Cyber-Scams

Cybersecurity firms like Darktrace and NCSC warn that phishing emails and fake retail sites are rampant, designed to steal your data and money.

  • The Danger: Phishing emails and fake shopping websites are highly sophisticated, often using AI to mimic major brands (Source: Darktrace/NCSC).
  • 3 Critical Red Flags to Stop a Scam:
    1. The URL has subtle spelling errors. Scammers will use characters like a zero instead of the letter ‘o’ (e.g., J0hn Lewis) to trick you when you are rushing. Always check the URL before entering payment details.
    2. The payment page only accepts a bank transfer. Legitimate major retailers almost always accept credit cards, which offer better fraud protection. Requesting a direct bank transfer is a huge sign of organized crime.
    3. The deal is simply “Too Good To Be True.” Unrealistic, extreme discounts (like an $800 phone for $150) should set off immediate alarms.

Conclusion: Win the Day by Not Playing the Game

The Black Friday season is a marathon, not a sprint. If you walk away from the weekend having stuck to your budget and only bought items at a verified, genuine all-time low price, you have won.

You are now equipped with the data and the tools you need. You know the three main retailer scams—the “Was/Now” lie, the MSRP misdirection, and the Black Friday price hike—and you have your 3-Step Price-Lock Strategy ready to go.

Final Call to Action: Help Us Fight the Fake Deals!

We are a community of savvy shoppers, and your input is invaluable. Share the link to an item you are tracking right now in the comments below, or tell us about the single worst “fake deal” you’ve ever seen. Let’s hold retailers accountable together.

Thought-Provoking Close: Black Friday is not about speed; it’s about strategy. Don’t be a shopper—be a sleuth.

Still deciding whether to shop on Friday or Monday? Our breakdown of Black Friday vs Cyber Monday reveals which day truly delivers better discounts.