BLACK FRIDAY guide: how to avoid scams and fake discounts
BLACK FRIDAY is the peak of the retail year, but it is also fertile ground for fraud schemes and unfair commercial practices.
Vasile Dingă
The main risks include fake discounts (prices artificially raised before the campaign) and unauthorized sellers (replica or "ghost" websites) that aim to illegally take your money and your data. This guide gives you the compliance checks you need to tell a genuine offer apart from a deceptive practice, so you're protected under Romanian and European consumer law. Checks and prevention Before you start any transaction, I recommend running a few essential checks. These are your first line of prevention. 1. Legal audit and checking the company details Scammers build unauthorized replicas (clones) of well-known stores (for example, the reported cases involving ANNA CORI or MUSETTE) in order to collect payment details. The legal framework: Law 365/2002 Romanian law requires merchants to clearly disclose their identity. Missing or invalid legal details are a critical sign of a "ghost" business. A 3-step compliance check Find the company's tax ID (CUI) and registered address in the mandatory sections (usually the footer or the contact page). Go to the official website of the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance (mfinante.gov.ro). Entering the tax ID should confirm that the company exists, is active and has the same name. If anything doesn't match, leave the site immediately . Be extra careful with newly registered businesses that accept only electronic payment (bank card) . Legitimate merchants usually also offer cash on delivery. 2. The reference price rule (30 days) A common unfair practice is raising the price a week before the sale and then applying a discount to that inflated price. The legal basis: the Omnibus Directive, transposed by Government Decision 686/2022 Under this rule, a discount must be calculated only against the lowest price the product had during the 30 days before the promotion. The previous price cannot simply be the price from the day before. Monitoring protocol, tools and evidence Pick the products you're interested in and record their price 30, 14…