Australia’s consumer watchdog has warned shoppers to be cautious during Black Friday and Cyber Monday as it intensifies scrutiny of deceptive sales tactics and the rise of so‑called “ghost stores”.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it will conduct a Black Friday sales sweep to identify misleading advertising, including countdown timers that do not reflect the true sale duration, broad “sitewide” claims that hide exclusions, fine print that limits headline offers, and “up to X per cent off” promotions where few goods receive the top discount.

“We are putting retailers on notice to review their sales advertising practices to ensure that any sales or discount claims they make are accurate, clear, and not likely to mislead or deceive consumers,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said. “Misleading advertising may influence a consumer’s behaviour and impact their ability to make an informed purchasing decision during the sales.”

Lowe urged people preparing major purchases to check prices before sales begin. “If consumers are waiting for the Black Friday sales to make a big purchase, we encourage them to consider checking the prices now before sales start, so they can compare the price and determine if they are making a legitimate saving,” she said. The regulator encouraged consumers to report suspect promotions via the ACCC website, including images and detailed information.

Separately, reports from Guardian Australia and ABC News highlighted the spread of “ghost stores” that present themselves as local brands while drop‑shipping imitation products from overseas or failing to deliver. Lowe described these operators as becoming “more sophisticated,” adding: “It is more difficult for consumers to tell a legitimate site from a dodgy one.” She pointed to warning signs such as emotional “closing down” narratives, refund policies that require returns to Asia for purported Australian retailers, missing contact details, and newly registered domains.

ABC News reported more than 700 complaints this year and about 150 identified ghost stores, while Guardian Australia detailed examples of fabricated media endorsements and AI‑generated imagery used in ads. The ACCC said it had written to Meta and Shopify to “scrutinise and take appropriate action” against such operators.

Meta said ghost stores and fake ads were an “adversarial space where sophisticated groups often change tactics to stay ahead of detection”. “We remove violating content when we become aware of it, and Meta encourages users to report pages or ads that appear to be misleading,” the company said, noting a fall of more than 50 per cent in user reports of scam ads over the past 15 months.

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