Today when everyone has a tight schedule to follow and a bundle of tasks to accomplish, the digital world helps us out in so many incredible ways. From booking movie tickets to grocery shopping to big festival shoppings, we go to the Internet for everything. While the Internet eases out our lives in uncountable ways, it also has some risks and fraudulently attached.
You never know when you might come across a fake e-commerce site and get fooled by them. So, in a bunch of websites, how do you find out if a website is not legitimate? If you are also wondering the same, do not worry. Here are some tips on how you can find out if a website is legitimate or a fraud.
● Content: The easiest way to know about a website’s authenticity is by checking its content. Sloppy content with grammar mistakes and wrong spellings makes up a big chance of the website being a fraud. After all, if a website wishes to do some real work, it would never upload low-quality content.
● Security Status: A security status is displayed in the address bar of the browsers when you visit a website. A safe and real website will show you a green padlock icon on the left of your website address. This is the quickest and one of the reliable ways of checking for a website’s safety. You can also click on that padlock icon to verify the security in detail.
● Domain Extensions: Domain extensions are the last part of a website address. Mostly, domain extensions like ‘.biz’ or ‘.info’ are considered to be a fraud. Extensions like ‘.com’ and ‘.net’ are considered to be authentic. However, one can not deny the fact that ‘.com’ and ‘.net’ extensions can be easily accessed, so there are still chances of these extensions being a fraud. Moreover, extensions like ‘.gov’ and ‘.edu’ are the most trustable due to obvious reasons, that they are educational sites.
● Advertisements and Pop-ups: The type of advertisement that appears on a website also tells a lot about its legitimacy. If explicit or suggestive, survey or task-doing ads appear on your website, take it as a red flag. Also, if the advertisements take up your whole page or take you to a whole other webpage, then it is advised to check the security and authenticity of the website.
● Connection Type: Websites with the “HTTPS” tag are considered more legitimate than websites with the “HTTP” tag. The tag “HTTPS” gives the website the most authentic certifications, hence considered more authentic. This process demands a lot of patience and time, so the frauds go with the “HTTP” tag to skip all the hassle.
● Option For Contact: If the website has a “Contact Us” option where you can comment, ask questions, call or mail them, it is okay to contact them and see their response. Moreover, if you do not get any response, you would immediately understand that the website is not quite trustable. Now, if the website does not show an option for contact, then this should be considered as a strong red flag.
These are some of the common ways customers use to check the authenticity of a website. However, there is no rulebook to specify how a fake e-commerce site should look like. Due to the increasing cases of e-commerce frauds, there is always a chance of you being fooled by a fake website. So, if you ever land on one of these websites and lose your money, what can you do?
Today’s digital world demands serious consumer awareness so that you know your course of action in every situation. With online fraud awareness, one should also know where to and how to complain if one falls into the digital trap.
You can check out my blog to learn more in-depth knowledge about online frauds and how to prevent them, where to file complaints etc.
Final Word
Even in a super digital era like now, you can manage E-commerce fraud prevention by just being a little more active and careful. It is strongly advised to go with only big and known brands and companies when you are shopping online, for the chances of any fraud are rare here.
Even if you ever wish to shop or connect financially with a new website, make sure that you go through the whole website in detail. Read the content and look for reviews and feedback to get an insight into the legitimacy of the website. Frauds are everywhere, looking to steal the money of careless customers. What you need to do is be active and play smart when you shop online.