The information for this article comes from: www.europol.europa.eu . In this 21st century, the world has
gone online.
Therefore, what we see,
read and hear everyday are all about e-commerce, e-shopping and e-sales.
The European police say if the site seems too
good to be true, it is probably fake.
Here are some other tips.
1 DICOUNTED PRICES- Scam websites post low prices of their products
and services to attract online shoppers. The bottom-line may be to sell either
fake, sub-standard or non-existing products or services.
2 ABOUT
US/ CONTACT US- If a site has no detailed information on: the name of the company,
physically verifiable address, functional phone numbers and official email
address, then watch out.
In addition to these, some genuine websites
have maps attached to their sites that give people ideas on how to visit their
offices.
But, European police says if a site does have
a 'contact us' page but only offers a form to fill out, this can also be an
indicator of a fraudulent website.
3 SPELLING MISTAKES- Some sites are perpetually under constructions.
This may be a sign that it is fake.
Also, sites with spelling mistakes may not be
genuine. Though there exceptions here.
Yes, some media related sites do have spelling
mistakes duet to pressure of breaking news or delivering on datelines.
4 DOMAIN-
Online shoppers should also be
careful with sites that have domain names that end with net or org. This, the police site insists are rarely used for online
shopping.
5 DOMAIN
NAME REGISTRATION- If a site is registered in the United States of America
and it is operating from Nigeria, it is suspicious, so says the police.
Even if the site uses your country’s domain,
do not assume that it is registered in your country. Be suspicious of websites
that are written in your language but use a domain from another country.
Check how long the domain has existed. If it
has been active for less than a year, it could be a scam website.
You can check who owns the domain by using a
WHOIS database, which can be found easily on any popular search engine by
searching this tag.
6 URL-
Check that the site is secure and its URL begins with “https” instead of
“http”.
This means that the site is secured using an
SSL certificate (the s stands for secure). Even if a website shows secured
pictures from most known payment institutions, it could be fake.
Check if the site offers a return policy,
terms and conditions and a privacy policy.
A real company should tell you how and where
to return a faulty item, as well as what they do with your data.
Source:
www.europol.europa.eu
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