How To Check If An E-Commerce Site Is A Fraud – Please read the article to acknowledge the details to find that the site you are surfing is safe or not.
Online shopping is getting convenient and reasonable for Worldwide consumers, but it becomes challenging for consumers to know is the ecommerce website legit or a scam.
Millions of consumers spend hundreds and billions of dollars on ecommerce websites for online shopping. As a result, there are a large number of ecommerce websites to accommodate the needs of consumers.
Since the number of stores is high, there is a higher chance for online scams and frauds. Many consumers fall prey to online scams. So, it is extremely important to check the legitimacy of the ecommerce website before shopping. Here is the helpful guide on How To Check If an E-Commerce Site Is a Fraud or Legit.
Key Points to Keep in Mind
Before you shop online at any ecommerce website, it is important to check the basic things first, which are given as below:
- Check the website URL
- The SSL encryption
- Payment modes
- Page ranking
- Website speed
- Product description
- Social media presence
- Customer reviews
- WHOIS lookup
- Feel and look of the ecommerce website
- Plagiarized Content
- Social Media Pages
How to Check If the Ecommerce Website is Scam or Legit?
Check Source Code
As you visit any ecommerce website, right-click on the homepage and check the source code. Trusted designers design professional and reliable websites from scratch.
If you see a sentence saying “Created with HTML Generator Plus,” then it is the red flag, and such websites must be avoided.
SSL Encryption
If the ecommerce website asks for any sensitive data when shopping online, including home address, card details, etc., check its SSL encryption. The best way to learn about its encryption is by checking the URL of the ecommerce website, and it must be protected with SSL Encryption, and the URL would start with https://. Let us proceed further to know more on How To Check If an E-Commerce Site Is a Fraud or Legit.
Complete Information on Website
It is a big red flag when you don’t find any details on the website about the retailer, seller, how to reach or contact them, and their services and payment options. The scam ecommerce websites lack vital details, including privacy policies and terms of services.
Besides, the products and items may also lack description and images and must have copied content. If this is the case, then there is a higher chance that the ecommerce website is a scam.
Safe Payment Options
Before shopping at the ecommerce websites, look for the payment options and the company logo (Maestro, American Express, MasterCard, and Visa). The ecommerce websites that accept online payments need to undergo a rigorous check-up by the leading financial institutions. So, if they are licensed and trusted by the financial institutions, so can you.
WHOIS Lookup
As you visit an ecommerce website, you agree to share your registration details to the institution regulating the domain name. WHOIS is the helpful tool to look up the historical details of the ecommerce website, including server name, IP address, screenshot history and registrar.
These details would help you learn the site owner and other details. If you see the website’s historical data, then the website is genuine and safe for online shopping.
Page Ranking
Many websites share the website’s popularity, details of other sites linking to it and the queries that drive traffic, and other details like who visited the site. Page ranking is the numeric value that represents the significance of the website on the internet.
So, when any page links to another page, it tends to cast a vote for another page. The page with more votes gets a higher page ranking value, and it signifies that the page is more important.
Blacklist
Spam and fraud ecommerce websites are blacklisted to alert the buyers about suspicious websites. If the ecommerce website is blacklisted or considered spam by multiple servers, it is a red flag, and you must avoid such websites for shopping.
Online Reviews
Not all ecommerce websites write fake reviews, but if you Google to check online opinions, it would help you learn the legitimacy. The online reviews and feedbacks from other consumers help future buyers to make a wise and right decision. It will help if you shop at ecommerce websites with the “Verified Merchant” badge. There are tools to check the reliability, trustworthiness and child safety of ecommerce websites.
Safe Browsing
Google has come forth with a tool to check if the ecommerce website is safe for browsing. In addition, you may also check the legitimacy of the websites that involve suspicious activities. So, use the Google Safe Browsing tool to check how safe the website is for browsing.
Domain Age
The website’s domain age is another important thing to check to know if the ecommerce website is genuine or scam. The ecommerce website that is newly created creates suspicion in buyer’s minds, and it is not safe to shop at those sites.
Plagiarized Content
For checking the authenticity of any site, you can check the plagiarised content. The plagiarized or duplicate content means the site has copied the terms and conditions and other content from another site. No efforts are made to make the site reachable.
Most of the scam platforms contain the copied content. You can take the help of Google and different platforms to check the exact amount of plagiarised content. Some sites can be the scanned copy just by reading as the terms and conditions never match the site’s other policies.
Social Media Pages
Checking social media pages can also help you to detect the legitimacy of any platform. However, if the site lacks social media or the link available on the official site is broken, it could be risky. Trusting such a site can lead you to the scam.
Conclusion
If you suspect any ecommerce website, please ensure to check the ecommerce website using the above-described steps before finalizing your next purchase. The guide on How To Check If an E-Commerce Site Is a Fraud or legit would help Worldwide online buyers to save energy, money and time.
Do you have any tips to share for online buyers? Please share it in the comments section below. Moreover, if you have been credit card scammed, please click here to know how to get the refund as per the nation wise guide.