4 Black Friday scams to watch for

INDIANAPOLIS – Less than two weeks before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, online security experts are sending out warnings about scammers who already have plans to trick you out of your money and personal information.

The Trend Micro blog highlights four specific scams to be on the lookout for when you go online for Black Friday deals.

Beware of ads posted on social media that look too good to be true. Trend Micro highlights one example where crooks posing as The North Face have placed an ad for 80% off merchandise.

. Social media ads and links in phishing emails will often direct scam victims to bogus websites that are designed to steal personal and financial information or infect your device with malware. One example is a website that looks just like The North Face website. However, the address isn't the legitimate thenorthface.com . Addresses in this particular scam include "northfacedeals.shop" and "northfacecoat.shop." Both of those are fake. Stay away from clicking on links posted in social media ads and included in unsolicited emails or text messages.

. Gift cards are a favorite tool of scammers because they can't be refunded or tracked once a victim falls for the scam. Sometimes, the lure of a gift card is all they need to get you to click something you shouldn't. One phishing email going around right now contains the Sam's Club logo and promises a $100 gift card if you agree to do a survey. Hopefully, that sounds too good to be true, because it is. If you are interested in purchasing gift cards, it's best to navigate to the stores website yourself or buy them in person.

. They're back! Fake alerts about delivery problems really blew up last year during the holiday shopping season. The text messages or fake USPS alerts usually say that a delivery or parcel is being held up at a facility because they don't have enough information to deliver it to its destination. But if you click the link they provide, it will simply take you to a website designed to harvest the information they claim to need.

Delivery scams can get confusing when we're in the thick of holiday shopping and you can forget how many deliveries you have coming and going. It's a good idea to request and save tracking information when you make an online order. If you get a message or alert that doesn't include one of those tracking numbers, it's probably fake.