Scam warning for shoppers looking to nab Black Friday bargains

Shoppers are being warned to be vigilant of scams ahead of the Black Friday sales, with a 34 per cent increase in card fraud already this month.

An estimated $12 billion will be spent over the sales period, with NAB Executive Group Investigations' Chris Sheehan warning it's the perfect opportunity for cybercriminals to target those looking for a bargain.

"People are doing a lot of shopping online and these grubs, they're out there to steal Christmas," he told Today.

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"They'll offer fake websites for people to go and click on and make a payment, it's often fashion and footwear, that sort of stuff and unfortunately, those goods will never arrive, or if they do arrive, it'll be something very, very substandard."

Chris said Thursdays between 4-6 pm is when there appears to be a spike in scammer activity and even though it is a sale period - if the price seems to good to be true... then it probably is.

"And if you're presented a text message or a WhatsApp message that you're not expecting and it's got a link on it, please don't click on that link - if you're interested in buying something, go to the website yourself," he said.

"And even just cross-checking, doing a quick Google search to see if it is real, these scammers generally target debit and credit cards, but we're also seeing post office scams as well.

"You will see these crooks impersonating banks, the police, the tax office, anything that they can do to create a sense of fear of missing out or urgency or anything they can do to try and psychologically engineer you to try and give up your money."

Hear the full chat with Chris Sheehan in the video above