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Black Friday bargains or financial traps? Stay smart, not scammed

Why This Year’s “Deals” Might Cost You More Than You Bargain For

Black Friday used to be all about grabbing that half-price TV or finally upgrading your phone for less. But in 2025, as prices keep climbing and digital scams become more sophisticated, many Brits are finding themselves the ones being “checked out” — by fraudsters.

As tempting as flash sales and “too-good-to-miss” deals can be, they also make you a prime target. With AI-fuelled scams mimicking brands, banks, and even people you trust, the real cost of chasing a discount might be your hard-earned money.

Scams Are Getting Smarter – And You’re Not Imagining It

AI tools like ChatGPT have been used by scammers since 2022 to write near-perfect emails and texts. In 2025, this tech has become more advanced, cheaper to access, and far more dangerous. Whether it’s a “missed delivery,” a fake checkout page, or a bogus loan offer, the threats are no longer easy to spot.

According to UK Finance, Brits lost over £1.1 billion to fraud in 2024, with investment and impersonation scams surging in the lead-up to Christmas. And it’s only getting worse as we head into peak shopping season.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently found that:

  • Two-thirds of parents feel pressured to overspend around Christmas.
  • Over 40% of UK adults worry they won’t cover costs this year.
  • More than 1 in 4 parents of young children are considering borrowing to fund the holidays.

Fraudsters know this — and they’re counting on you feeling the squeeze.

The Most Common Black Friday Scams to Watch Out For

Scammers prey on two things: urgency and trust. Here’s where they strike hardest this time of year:

“Loan Approved!” (But It’s a Scam)

With more people seeking quick loans to cover Black Friday buys, fraudsters offer fake loans requiring an upfront “processing fee.” Once paid? The loan never arrives.

Tip: Legitimate lenders never ask for fees before issuing a loan.

Bogus Delivery Texts

You get a message from “Royal Mail” or “DPD” saying your parcel couldn’t be delivered — with a link to “reschedule.” It looks legit, but the link can install malware or steal your card details.

Tip: Never click links in unexpected texts. Forward suspicious messages to 7726 and emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.

Copycat Retail Websites

That £29 air fryer? It might be a fake site made to look like a major brand. You pay… and receive nothing.

Tip: Manually type in website addresses. Use tools like Get Safe Online’s website checker to verify.

“It’s Your Mate… Can You Buy Gift Cards?”

Scammers spoof your contacts, pretending to be a friend who’s “locked out” or “in a bind.” They ask you to urgently buy gift cards and share the codes.

Tip: Always double-check with a phone call — don’t rely on emails or DMs.

Social Media Deals That Aren’t Real

From Instagram to Facebook Marketplace, fake ads promise discounts — but lead you to sites that steal data or push fake goods.

Tip: Look for verified seller badges. When in doubt, don’t check out.

Don’t Let Scam Season Eat Into Your Savings

At a time when every penny counts, it’s not just the discounts you should be chasing — it’s financial safety and smarter savings. This Black Friday, protecting your purchasing power matters more than ever.

And while bank fraud protection is getting better, it’s no silver bullet. The smartest move is often about how (and where) you store your money in the first place.

Bonus Tip – Protecting Your Savings from More Than Just Scams

While scammers are nibbling at the edges of our inboxes, inflation continues to nibble at our savings. Your pounds in the bank today buy less tomorrow.

TallyMoney gives you digital access to real, physical gold — not paper promises or speculative coins. Each tally® represents 1 milligram of physical gold you own, securely stored and spendable using a debit Mastercard.

It’s not just about protecting your money from fraud — it’s about protecting its value.

No transaction fees
No FX markups
Full ownership of gold you can access anytime
No “fine print” or hidden charges

This Black Friday, Make Security the Priority

Double-check every deal.
Don’t share personal or payment info on impulse.
Keep your savings where they can’t be digitally drained or inflated away.

Because the best “deal” this season? Holding onto your hard-earned money.

Final Thought

Black Friday can be a great opportunity — or a financial trap. Be alert. Shop smart. And protect your savings from both digital scammers and shrinking value.

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Real World Examples

  1. Fancy a coffee? Use your TallyMoney Mastercard. Boom – paid. (Yes, you’re buying a flat white with gold. How amazing is that?)

  2. Need cash? Use any Mastercard ATM worldwide or spend across the globe. ZERO fees from us, ZERO markup. (When you spend or withdraw, your gold converts instantly at the global spot price. No catches, no hidden charges – just straight-up Mastercard exchange rates. Because your money shouldn’t cost you… more money.)

  3. Want some money back in your bank? Just tap ‘transfer’ in the app. (Though after a while, you might wonder why you’d want to…)

    Zero faff. Zero waiting. Zero fees when you spend tally.

Meet Cameron Parry

Meet the guy who wouldn’t accept being trapped in a ‘heads they win, tales we lose’ government-run monetary system that protects and benefits the financial institutions, to the detriment of the public. Where people’s deposits are constantly at risk, and losing value through inflation caused by central bankers and politicians.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then frustration may be the roommate’s cousin of motivation. In any case, he decided to stop getting mad and start a new monetary system with sound money. Where deposits serve the depositor, where savings build wealth for savers, and transactions are made in a familiar way. And he called it TallyMoney.

TallyMoney: Gold upgraded

With TallyMoney:

  • Your pounds instantly become physical gold (1 tally = 1mg of real gold)
    Stored in Swiss vaults (not under your bed)
  • Fully insured and allocated (actually yours, not a paper promise)
  • Spend it anywhere with your TallyMoney debit Mastercard
  • Transfer back to pounds instantly if needed (but why would you?)

We’re not anti-bank because it’s trendy. We’re anti-bank because the current system is rigged against you. Every day you leave money in a “savings” account, you’re funding their profits while your wealth evaporates.

Enter gold: the original currency

Why gold? It’s value is universally acknowledged.

  • It’s not controlled by any single government
  • It can’t be printed or manufactured
  • It’s actually scarce 
  • It requires effort to extract it 
  • It doesn’t rust, decay, or disappear
  • It has remarkable properties

So while the pound’s lost 50% of its value since 2004, gold’s grown by 146% in the last decade alone. While your bank savings got mugged by inflation, gold owners were laughing all the way to… well, not the bank.

But here’s the rub: Traditional gold ownership is a right pain. Buy physical bars? Prepare for storage fees that’ll make your eyes water, insurance premiums that never end, and a 5-10% haircut when you need to sell. Plus, try buying your weekly shop with a gold ingot.
Paper gold ETFs? They’re classed as Tier 3 assets for a reason – that’s financial speak for “risky as hell.” You don’t own gold, you own a promise. A tradeable IOU. And when everyone wants their gold at once? Good luck with that. So you’re stuffed either way: real gold that’s impossible to use, or fake gold that might not be there when you need it.
Until now.

The truth about inflation

How? Well, when politicians overspend (and they invariably do), they need more money to ‘stimulate the economy’. But raising taxes makes voters angry. So what do they do? They fire up the money printer, and boy do they love to print. To give you a sense of the scale, since 2015 the Bank of England has created £520bn out of thin air through “quantitative easing” (electronic money printing) plus £86bn in physical currency. 

Thing is, more pounds in circulation = each pound is worth less. Think about it: In 2004, £100 could buy you a decent night out, theatre tickets, and a cab home. Today? That same £100 barely covers the theatre tickets. Your money didn’t disappear – it was diluted, like someone’s been topping up your whisky with water when you weren’t looking.

The “2% inflation target” they bang on about? That’s them telling you they plan to steal 2% of your wealth every single year. And calling it healthy.

How TallyMoney actually works?

  1. First things first: we’ve got actual gold bullion* (none of that paper-promise nonsense) locked up tight in a Brinks vault in Switzerland. Yeah, those Brinks – the security legends who’ve been protecting valuables since Queen Victoria was on the throne.

  2. You send your pounds to your TallyMoney account (bye-bye, inflation-addicted fiat!).

  3. We use the global gold spot price to instantly turn your currency into its weight in gold. No hidden or fuzzy exchange rates, just the real market gold price + 1.49% gold purchase fee.

  4. Each milligram of your physical gold = 1 tally (we keep it decimal because no one wants to faff about with troy ounces – the specific unit for measuring gold).

  5. That’s it! Your app shows your balance in tally, but remember – those aren’t just numbers on a screen. That’s your solid gold, in milligrams, sitting pretty in Switzerland.
  6. You can now save and spend your gold as you see fit.

*All Tally gold is sourced from LBMA-accredited providers because we’re rebels with a cause… and standards. Instead of tracking the gold price per kg, your money is directly converted based on the real-time global gold spot price.

TallyMoney is 
real money

  1. Store of value
    Your gold sits in a Swiss vault (not getting ‘quantitatively eased’ away)
    Evidenced by 5,000 years of holding its value
    Can’t be inflated by government whim and fingers on the ‘currency print’ button
  2. Medium of exchange
    Spendable at 150+ million shops worldwide (thanks, Mastercard)
    Currency converts instantly at market rates (no sneaky margins)
    Moves as quickly as sending a text 
  3. Unit of account
    1 tally = 1mg of gold. Simple
    Stable enough to actually plan your future with
    Speaks every currency’s language (gold’s kind of a big deal everywhere)

This is why TallyMoney is so much more than just owning Gold – it’s a real financial revolution. We’re not just helping you own gold; we’re bringing back what money was always meant to be. Sound Money for a Brighter Future. Because your hard work and wealth deserve better than being slowly robbed by external forces.

We want you to have real money

  1. A store of value:
    Keeps its value over time
    Insulated from devaluation/inflation
    Actually rare and can’t be created out of thin air
  2. Medium of exchange:
    Easy to use for everyday transactions
    Widely accepted
    Can be transferred efficiently
  3. Unit of account:
    Works like a proper value-measuring stick (imagine if your ruler shrunk every year – mad, right?)
    Splits nicely into useful bits
    Reliable enough to plan your future with

Why does this matter? Because your hard work deserves better than being turned into monopoly money by someone else’s actions. Every time your currency loses value (inflation) its stealing from your past work, which harms your present savings, and your future dreams.