Black Friday deals are here! 7 tips to avoid being scammed [Video]

Black Friday deals are already here. And so too are the Black Friday scams—attempts to part you from your hard-earned money.

Avoiding these schemes isn’t too hard, though. Just a little extra vigilance can keep your shopping cart full of real discounts and your credit card safe from unwanted charges. Here are a few simple things to watch for, plus several more that will help protect you during this busy season.

Watch what links you click on

Study the URLs of links you’re about to click on—or just head directly to the sites you want to visit. Malicious advertisements, email, social media posts, and forum threads (yep, they’re still a thing) can try to push you to phony or phishing sites meant to steal your personal information, including your credit card info.

Beware text messages about deals

Just as with other methods of communication, you should scrutinize the links sent to you in text messages—and their senders. This one gets a particular callout since …