We’re heading right into the Black Friday sales season, with major online retailer Amazon already kicking off seasonal deals, but with such a savings blitz on the horizon, be wary of malicious websites and services online that could mislead you and put your personal data in danger. We keep a vigilant eye on the current threat of scams every month, but we’re lending a spotlight to coupon scams that could promise a good deal and result in nothing of the sort.

Before we get too into the weeds, you can trust TechRadar when it comes to the best coupons on tech products. We’re always updating our articles on HP discount codes, Dyson coupons, Samsung promo codes and more, with our discount codes sourced from brands and retailers directly. We don’t deal in dodgy discounts, and if it’s listed on one of our coupon pages, it’s a tested and verified coupon (though obviously keep in mind that such codes expire and will not last forever).

However there are plenty of sources for coupons out there that can pose a risk to you. The physical act of entering a dud code into a box at the checkout likely won’t result in any backlash, but the act of obtaining said coupon is another story.

We’re drilling our advice on staying coupon scam safe down into three easy to understand points. Read on to learn the best practices when it comes to fake discount code scams online.

1. Trust only legitimate websites, emails and social media posts

Call me biased, but TechRadar is a very good website, and as already mentioned, you can trust the coupon codes and deals that we mention in our articles. When it comes to lesser known websites that may offer ‘too good to be true’ deals, display a frenzy of ads or demand sign-ups or payments before displaying codes, things get murky.

A quick tell of a website’s legitimacy is its URL. If a fake coupon website were attempting to impersonate TechRadar, for example, the URL may be spelled differently or have a different address to .com (such as .xyz, .gg, or .tv). However, some scam websites won’t go down the impersonation route and will instead skip fake legitimacy entirely. This makes things difficult, so a good rule of thumb is that if you don’t know it, don’t click it.

If the website in question has received positive reviews or has been linked to by other trustworthy websites, then that’s a different story altogether and you could lend the website some trust based on these points, but it’d be a mistake to trust a website entirely, only to have your email inbox filled with spam after entering your personal information, or your money drawn out of your account for making a payment to sign up.

This tip goes for emails and social media posts too. Say for example Dell is running a Black Friday sale and you’re a regular customer; you’d probably see emails in your inbox from Dell advertising the sale, along with posts on social media to the same effect. A bad actor might impersonate Dell’s email addresses or social media accounts to advertise fake discount codes. Check the validity of these things against what Dell has on its websites and official ‘verified’ social media accounts.

2. Don’t sign up for discount codes, and especially don’t give up your credit card information

This is an easy tip to recommend because it’ll stop cybercriminals in their tracks; do not give up your credit card information, and unless the website is one that’s trusted, don’t even create an account with them.

When it comes to coupon codes, A dodgy website might have it set up so that discounts are partially visible, but will only be revealed when you create an account with credit card information revealed. Don’t do this, there’s no reason why a coupon code aggregator would need your card information, and unless you trust the website, do not sign up for an account, otherwise you could curse your email inbox and phone number to be constant spam targets.

3. Coupon extensions are great, but know the risks

A popular shopping tool that has really started to gain traction in the past five years is discount coupon browser extensions, such as Honey and Cently. Such browser extensions can be very useful, but because of their deep embedded nature into your browser of choice, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, they can pose a risk to your personal and financial security.

ExpressVPN, the creators of TechRadar’s recommended best VPN for beginners, has done an excellent job assessing the legitimacy of discount coupon browser extensions. Here’s a quick explainer on ExpressVPN’s assessment for a handful of browser extensions:

• Honey: Data on purchases is collected and shared with parent company PayPal. It’s overall a safe extension to use, but you might want to skip it if you’re concerned about data harvesting.
• Cently: Data on purchases and shopping habits is shared with partners mostly for marketing purposes. It’s still a relatively safe extension to use, but your data isn’t private.
• Coupert: Again, personal shopping behavior is tracked across the web and shared with partners. It’s still a safe extension to use, and it encrypts the data that it shares, but be aware that they are being shared in the first place.

These are legitimate coupon extensions that could score you some genuine savings at the checkout, but before signing up to all of them at once, keep an eye out for the less-than-legitimate ones. Extensions listed on the Chrome Web Store, for example, may say they track coupons across the internet, but in reality they just flood your browser with spam. Only install legitimate extensions with a verifiably proven track record, and if you’re unsure, check extension reviews on their listing page.

Remember in this Black Friday period: if a deal appears too good to be true, then it probably is. Stay safe online and happy bargain shopping.

• Find more discounts in our live coverage of the best Black Friday deals as well as the best Amazon Black Friday deals