TAMPA, Fla. — The busy holiday shopping season is upon us as Black Friday, the busiest day of the year for in-person shopping, gives way to Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and the on-going "retail rush" before the holidays.
On Friday, crowds flooded the International Plaza in Tampa to try to score deals.
Shopper Adam Klein said he enjoys getting out for Black Friday every year.
"It's just a bit of adventure," Klein said. "That's what brought us out. It's definitely crazy. Parking is nuts, and there's a lot of people."
Shopper Megan Pierre exclaimed, "There was 40% off at UO, 30% at Zara, 45% at Steve Madden, so it was worth it!"
The National Retail Federation projects the average consumer will spend a record $902 this holiday season on gifts, food and decorations.
While roughly 46% plan to shop at department stores, 57% of consumers will be shopping online, according to the NRF.
And with great online deals sometimes comes great risk.
"We're making purchases more than any other time of year, so this is a great time for bad actors to focus their efforts," Cyber Security expert Erich Kron said.
Kron said thanks to Artificial Intelligence, scammers don't have to be sophisticated hackers anymore. That means we should expect more holiday shopping scams than ever.
"All of this stuff is happening in a really automated fashion, so we're seeing it happen quicker and more often than ever before," Kron said. "You can literally go out on the dark web and buy these 'Get started in cybercrime kits.'"
This holiday season, Kron urges consumers to shop with reputable companies, check return policies, use a protected form of payment, such as a credit card, and be skeptical of deals too good to be true.
Kron advised, "Take a deep breath. I mean seriously — take a deep breath and look at it kind of carefully."