Super Black Friday Deals: $20 HDTVs, $12 Smartphones – Too Good To Believe?

Here at CP we’re getting hammered with Black Friday email ads offering some incredible deals.

You too?

How ’bout the one with the subject “Thanksgiving Savings Event (98% below retail).”

Other subjects include “55 LED TV Just 20.06 through Black Friday,” “Product Alert: iPad Air (16GB) just 21.45 dollars,” and “iPhone 5c PINK just 13.90 dollars [Black Friday Inventory Clearance],” amongst others.

Some of the examples of items these emails say they have on sale for Black Friday are:

– a Samsung Galaxy S4 with a retail price of $619.99 on sale for $12.87;

– a $389 Toshiba 32″ LED Smart HDTV on sale for $20.07;

– a $499 HP Probook on sale for $56.99;

– and get this… a $499 Xperia Z smartphone is on sale for $4.91!

Count me in!

Oh, wait a minute, maybe not… could this perhaps be a scam?

We’ll, let me save you a bit of work here

Links in these spam emails go to a page that includes a YouTube video with a fake newscast about the wonders of Zbiddy.com.

Zbiddy is one of these ‘penny-auction,’ or perhaps better referred to as a ‘bidding-fee-auction,’ sites. Bidders pay 60¢ for each bid they place. Each bid raises the “price” of the item by one penny. Place 20 bids on an item and you pay $12 (20 x 60¢) whether you win or not.

We’ve published several articles about similar ‘bidding-fee-auction’ sites recently. You can read our stories about DealDash to learn more about how these types of websites operate.

Needless to say though, the “sale prices” offered in these Thanksgiving and Black Friday are very misleading. The prices advertised are not how much shoppers are actually paying for the item, as they don’t include the bidding fees that have been paid. They also don’t mention how much those that lost the auction and aren’t getting anything are paying.

Have you gotten any of these emails?

What do you think of penny-auctions?

Leave your comments below, and be sure to stayed visit Consumer Press throughout the Black Friday weekend for more alerts and Black Friday news!