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West Yorkshire Police have been out across the county this week offering advice and reminding shoppers to vigilant on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Officers from the Economic Crime unit and District Fraud Ambassadors were on hand at shopping centres in Wakefield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax and Bradford advising shoppers and raising awareness of various frauds that some people have become unfortunate victims of.

West Yorkshire Police T/Detective Sergeant Pam Gillings, of Protective services said: “West Yorkshire Police are committed to ensuring people living and working in our communities along with the wider public understand what help, advice and support is available to them to ensure that they do not become victims of fraud.

"This education is vital in ensuring we do all in our power to reduce repeat victimisation and protect the vulnerable in our society.

West Yorkshire Police have been out across the county this week offering advice and reminding shoppers to vigilant on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

“With the increase in the growth of online sales especially with the run up to Christmas there is an increased risk on online shopping fraud, and we felt it was important to be present and offer advice face to face for those that needed it.”

If you plan to take advantage of offers today or on Cyber Monday, be mindful of the following:

• Online Stores can be used as a cover to commit fraud in that you may pay inflated prices for goods or not received them at all.

• Remember if the offer is too good to be true it generally is, such as when you see very low prices with huge discounts you should be suspicious. Fraudsters will use low prices to entice shoppers to quickly sell fake, counterfeit, or non-existent items

• Ensure you do your research to check if they are a legitimate store, check the address tallies with the official website and search online for reviews of the store, look out for poor spelling and grammar or phrases that don’t sound right

• Don’t always trust social media adverts, some fraudsters will pretend to be advertisers, creating social media accounts and pay to have their scam message advertised to you in your timeline.

If anyone believes they have been a victim of fraud, report the incident to Action Fraud via the website or by calling 0300 123 2040.

Black Friday: Wakefield shoppers urged to be vigilant