The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has issued a warning that consumers are being targeted by "increasingly sophisticated online scams".

The warning comes as Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales kick off the busiest shopping period of the year.

With recent CCPC research revealing that around one in four people expect to make a purchase in the sales, the watchdog is advising consumers to be extra vigilant.

It said shoppers should be "especially wary of ads on social media, as scammers are using convincing clones of trusted websites and fake local shops to trick shoppers".

To highlight the dangers posed by different types of scams, the CCPC has published case studies of real life scam tactics that have been used on people who contacted the watchdog afterwards.

Deputy Director of Financial Education at the CCPC, Muriel Dolan, joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

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