Online shopping has quickly become one of the most popular ways to shop. There are a variety of reasons for this including convenience, lower prices, compare shopping, and a much larger variety to choose from. How do you know if the website or individual you are shopping through is in fact legitimate? The internet can be very dangerous if you are not well educated on how to spot a fraudulent website.
Tip #1
Use a government monitoring agency or a similar type website.
Maybe the best and most complete way to check the validity of a shopping website is through the Better Business Bureau. All you have to do is go to the BBB website and type in the name of the seller in question and they will in most cases give you detailed and informative information on how legitimate the seller is. Another great website is called Ripoff report. This investigating site will give you an overall rating based on previous customer’s experiences and an actual investigation of the seller. The scale is from one to ten and if the site in question gets a six or higher you can feel safe. Anything lower then a six then you might want to use extreme caution or avoid the seller all together.
Tip #2
Use a traceable form of payment.
Never under any circumstance send cash to anyone you bought something from through the web. If a particular seller asks you to mail them cash then just stop the transaction right there. The best way to pay for any transaction is through a credit card since transactions can be reversed in the event that you are being scammed. Paypal also offers protection when buying something online. Pay pal has the ability as a credit card when it comes to the reversal of payments.
Tip #3
Get an opinion from a previous customer
One thing that makes the internet so useful is the ability to communicate with a large variety of people. This can be extremely important when shopping online. This gives the buyer the ability to research a seller; in particular one can look at past reviews and get a pretty good idea on if the seller has a poor history or a reputable one.
Tip #4
Prices can indicate a lot
One thing to that can really be a tip off of an illegitimate website is outrageously low or extremely high prices. Many times a website will offer a product at a price that will seem unbelievable low. This is done to lure you on to the website. Make sure to research and get a good idea of what the product you intend to buy sells for.
Tip #5
Take extra precaution with rare or highly demanded items
Many times and especially during the holiday season websites may offer a hard to find product and offer it for a great price. Although you may actually get lucky, a majority of the time the seller is running a scam. The product is usually a cheaper or fake version of the sought after item. Another thing to separate the real and fake items is when a seller has a large quantity of a rare item.
Tip #6
Ratings can be very helpful
Most websites that feature items for sale have some sort of rating system. Make sure to pay attention to these ratings. The best rule of thumb is to look for sellers with a high number of positive ratings. People understand that a negative rating is bad but a seller with very little ratings can actually be worse.
Tip #7
Research, Research, Research
The one sure way to separate the real from the fake sellers is research. Follow the previous 6 tips, but take the extra step of searching the entire website you plan to purchase from. Read all the fine print and look for some contact information. Contacting the seller before the purchase can really make you feel better about a purchase.
Online shopping can be the best way to shop, but if you are not careful it can also be a huge mistake. The web is so vast it can be a gold mine for thieves and very hard for the authorities to protect consumers from them. The only protection you have is your own knowledge and common sense.