In previous years, chaos erupted at mall and retailers as consumers vied for the crazy specials on the day. Photo: Getty Images
As shoppers gear up to grab for the latest Black Friday specials, the Johannesburg Emergency Services has urged people to take precautions during the spree.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday in South Africa are the country’s biggest shopping events, with major brands and retailers offering impressive discounts in-store and online.
In previous years, chaos erupted at malls and retailers as consumers vied for the crazy specials on the day.
With Black Friday providing discounted deals to shoppers, it also presents safety challenges.
Joburg Emergency Services spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, urged people to be safe during the shopping gala, as it offers an opportunity for criminals to target shoppers with bag snatching, pickpocketing and other crimes. Residents are urged to exercise caution while shopping and avoid stampedes.
“With these hot temperatures, shoppers are urged not leave young children inside locked vehicles,” Mulaudzi advised.
ALSO READ: Hackers threaten to leak every South African’s private financial data in R1.1 billion ransom
Meanwhile, there are ways you can shop wisely and safely on Black Friday, especially during a tough economic climate and a time of various scams
In October, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) revealed South Africa is grappling with a surge in a formidable array of financial and banking crimes, with a spike in banking app fraud.
The report showed a surge of 36% in incidents of banking app fraud.
“Fraudsters employed a variety of tactics which included social engineering, exploiting data vulnerabilities, and stealing login credentials. One such nefarious tactic, which continues to prevail is “vishing” where scammers impersonate bank officials to trick victims into revealing sensitive data like one-time pins (OTPs) and random verification numbers (RVNs).
“Phishing and vishing remained the preferred methods for illicitly gaining access to confidential banking information. Phishing emails led victims to counterfeit websites closely resembling legitimate bank websites, while vishing was employed to acquire OTPs and RVNs,” Sabric said.
During last year’s Black Friday weekend, online purchases by Standard Bank customers increased by almost 19% compared to 2021. In 2021 the year-on-year growth rate was 15%.
There was also a 20% increase in the number of transactions processed over the weekend, which reached a total of 8.6 million.
Additional reporting by Ina Opperman
ALSO READ: Five ways to shop wisely and safely on Black Friday
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