Bargain hunters may be counting down the days until Black Friday, but they are being warned to avoid falling for fake deals.
Some retailers, including Boots and Superdrug, have already launched their sales, three weeks ahead of Black Friday on 26 November.
If you've got your eye on something, start checking prices now to make sure the price charged in the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale is all it seems.
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Last year, consumer group Which? found that a tiny 1% of items were offered at their lowest-ever price over the Black Friday weekend, with 85% of 'bargains' not the cheapest they’ve ever been.
Moneysavingexpert.com 's Martin Lewis has advised shoppers to price check now, so you have a benchmark to see if it is really cheaper when it is 'discounted'.
That way when it comes to Black Friday, you’ll be able to tell straight away if retailers have pumped up the prices immediately prior to the sale to allow them to 'reduce' them and give the appearance of a bargain.
According to Which?, it can be tricky to figure out if an offer is genuine or not, and the rules aren't that helpful.
The law, as contained in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, simply says that if a product is on sale or special offer, the retailer must show the original price and it must have been selling at that price for 'a meaningful period of time'.
In practice this usually means that the discount must be available for the same period of time or less than the product was sold at the higher price.
If you don't fancy trawling the high street or the internet with a notebook, there are some websites you can use to give you a good idea of what you should be paying.
Price Spy tracks costs from thousands of , including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets.
Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices, or CamelCamelCamel is recommended if you’re shopping on Amazon.
Finally, you should also try Google Shopping, which lets users search for and compare prices across the web.
