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Tips and Techniques to Avoid Online Scams
By: Matthew Fischer
How to Avoid Website Scams
The Internet has made all of our lives much more easier. The Internet has opened up a gateway of virtually unlimited amount of information to help enrich our lives and make better decisions. The same is true for the savvy shopper looking for a bargain. We can use the Internet to find the best deals and save a lot of our hard-earned money. Unfortunately, this also opens the door for scammers to try and take away your money as well. As new technology emerges, the opportunities for a scammer to steal your money becomes more and more easy.
This ebook addresses these issues and provides some tips and techniques you can use to help avoid being scammed by an illegitimate website. You shouldn’t have to use these techniques for all of your Internet purchases, but it will certainly come in handy when you plan on making a large purchase or one where you question the legitimacy of a company.
Validate Contact Information
Make sure there is valid contact information for the company. If a phone number and/or address are not evident, look for it on the “Contact Us” or “About Us” pages. If you are planning to make a large purchase with the company and the only form of contact is an email address or an online submission form, then you should consider this to be a major red flag!
Use the Who Is Website
The website Whois.net is a website where you can look up the registration information for the owner of a domain. This website will display the owner’s name, phone number and address (unless it was specifically requested to be private) as well as when the website was created. A short tenured website can also be a red flag as well especially if the website claims to have many satisfied customers.
If you find that the registration information of the domain is outside of your country, then use caution. I would not say that this is a red flag, however if you are purchasing an item like software and you pay extra for future technical support then you need to be aware that the website can shut down at any given time and you will not have much recourse.
Use Google
Googling the company name is another great way to research other customer experiences. You can try googling the website name and the word complaint for example to see if other people have had issues or problems with their purchases.
Use Better Business Bureau (BBB)
If you are considering using a company for a long-term service such as website hosting or drop shipping, then you should check to see if there is any information on the company at the Better Business Bureau’s website. At this website, you can check to see if there have been any complaints made against the company, what they were and what the outcome was. You can also see if the company is a member of the Better Business Bureau, which would be a plus if they are.
Remember the saying!
You should also remember the saying, “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.” If the price for an item is just too cheap compared to other websites then there is a very good chance that the merchandise is faulty, refurbished, pirated or even stolen. For example, if you are planning to purchase software that is extremely cheap relative to other competitors then you need to confirm that the software comes in the original manufacturer’s packaging. Otherwise you may receive pirated software with an invalid license code or none at all.
Use Credit Cards or Pay Pal
When paying for purchases online, you should always use Pay Pal or your credit card as your form of payment. That way you are protected in case something goes wrong with your purchase. Do not pay for purchases with your bank account as this offers you no protection and it also reveals your private banking account information.
Always check to make sure that the website you are inputting your credit card information into is a secure website. You can confirm this by looking in the address bar. Secure Internet transactions are identified with web addresses beginning with https, with the “s” referring to a secure website.
Do not give out any other personal information that is not needed to complete your transaction such as your social security number and passwords.
The Internet is a great place to shop and find a good deal so don’t let this article discourage you from making your purchases. On the rare occasion you should come across a website scam, if you keep these tips handy, you can protect yourself and your money!
Article Source: http://www.ezarticles.info
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