Los Angeles Times

Consumer Confidential: How to avoid getting scammed amid all those sweet Black Friday deals

Black Friday (or thereabouts) is when retailers roll out their best deals in hopes of attracting your business. It's also when scammers roll out some of their sneakiest con jobs.

Before you go shopping online or in the real world, take a moment to see what you have to watch out for.

"It's a game of trust," said Emory Roane, policy counsel for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego advocacy group.

He told me that fraudsters no longer make amateur-hour mistakes such as typos or bad grammar that can instantly tip off most people to steer clear of online offers.

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