TOP 10 ANTI-SCAM Unique Skill For Online Shopping

With the rapid development of e-commerce, the network scam has become more and more rampant. According to the report of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the losses that were caused as a result of phishing raised from 265 million dollars in 2008 to 560 million dollars in 2009. Since 2004, we have been engaged in e-commerce. We have since then come across a variety of scams and have accumulated rich experience in scam prevention. For the healthy development of e-commerce and to maintain the credibility of an honest merchant, we have concluded the following 10 unique anti-scam skills.

1. Check The Domain Register information

It is a well known fact that a great company always exists for a long time and an old website is more secure than the new. How can you tell a website is new or old? Click here to get the site domain register information: http://whois.domaintools.com/. This particular website includes the register time, registers name and business address of the registered individual. A scam provides incomplete or false information, and always replaces identity; the fake site registered by a person sustains no longer. Therefore, the longer the site is registered, with more detailed information, the higher is the site credibility.

2. Check Whether They Have Business In Authoritative Third-Party Trading Platform

In general, a good merchant makes use of an authoritative third party trading platform for selling his products. This platform is also used by the merchant to improve his market share as it is the symbol of strength. Alibaba, eBay, Amazons etc are some of the common third-party trading platforms available. These platforms are extremely transparent and fair. The platform’s evaluation system is highly credible in nature. You can and should however obtain more objective information about them. For instance, you can search for a business named Alibaba from Google, and can also confirm whether or not the site is registered and sold in Alibaba.

3. Check Whether Or Not They Pass The Third-Party Network Security Certification

McAfee and Verisign are the world’s most authoritative network security certification. Fortune 500 companies usually pass their certification without much ado as they have strict business identity confirmation system tied along them. These certifications are also equipped with a frequently operating site scanner that ensures security of the site and keeps it free from the Trojan horses, viruses, spyware and other threats. If a site does not display some such certification logo, please do not purchase any kind of products from them. (Note: Many sites, just hang a symbol, and are not authenticated; you should be extremely careful about such sites.)

4. Check The Existence Of Price Trap

While shopping online, do not fall into the price trap when the product is incredibly below the market price. This at times, induces the customers to buy the given product but you have to act smart. A high priced product does not necessarily mean a high quality product; and at the same time low priced product does not also indicate a high quality or a low quality product. However, a low priced product offered on such scam sites may indicate that the product is either defective, imitated or a repaired product or it may come under the category of parallel imports and the worst can be that the product may not be delivered at all after order placement. Contrary to such cases, there might also be a possibility that an honest merchant may charge less for certain products for the reasons of clearance sale, or may offer discounts and payment coupons, thereby lowering the product price. In all such cases, you must double check the website and the product price through other methods as well.

5. Check Whether Or Not The Website Supports Payment Via PayPal

PayPal is a mode of payment that is entrusted to protect the buyer while trading online. In case a customer does not receive the ordered goods or if the goods delivered does not match with the ordered description, you can initiate a dispute within 45 days and can get complete refund of his money without any excuses. Moreover, Paypal also keeps a check on the frequent complaints of the online sellers and merchants in regard to the sale of a number of fake and shoddy products; the accounts of such PayPal account holders are frozen soon. Therefore, when such websites are compared which deal through modes like Western Union and PayPal, PayPal payment is any day more secure.

6. Check Whether The Site Supports Business Bank Account Payment

An authentic and known online shopping website must always be registered by the entity company. Such entities must possess a legal business license from the local government and must have a business bank account. This indicated the true nature of the business. In case both these things are not available, it can be assumed that the so called business is a personal business or a scam. While making bulk purchases, it is therefore suggested that the payment must be made in the company bank account as it guarantees law protection to the customers/ buyers and saves them from indulging in any business scam.

7. Check Whether Or Not The Entity Has The Customer Interaction Platform

The customer’s views, comments and experiences after using the product directly indicated the scope of their next visit/purchase. An honest business will always allow the customers to pen down his views on different platforms such as forums, blogs, or any other third party social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. Contrary to this, a scam site or a fake entity will never provide any such platform. This is because the fear of disclosing the truth by the cheated customer persists in them and such entities are scared of their business termination after such truthful statements.

8. Check Whether Or Not The Site Is Professional

The details determine a success or a failure for any business; therefore a professional B2C site must pay due attention to the detailing and customer assistance part even though it demands a lot of energy. An authentic website always provide points, coupons, affiliate programs, track orders, to its customers along with the services of assistance before and after ordering the product. Such websites also offer columns of new arrivals, RSS and other such services along with the columns of detailed company information and clear return policy. Fake sites however do not waste time on these important details. Therefore, this must draw a clear line of distinction between the real websites and the scam/fake ones.

9. Check Whether Or Not They Support Face To Face Transactions

You can also entrust your local friends or business partners, home delivery. If a particular website does not support the transaction in person or does not provide its detailed address, it is certainly deemed to be a cheater. Therefore, at the time of making bulk purchases, you must definitely check whether the website opted for supports face to face transactions or not. This will ensure that you are not cheated or scammed by any chance.

10. Practice Is The Sole Criterion For Testing The Reality

If all the above mentioned anti-scam skills are not sufficient to judge whether the site is a scam or not, you may consider this one last skill. You can initially place a small order to verify the authenticity of the deal. The results turn up quick and in case of any deception, the loss faced is not much troublesome and big. In fact, the scam deal, in this case, does not ignore the small orders; such deals however refund the invested fund.
Online shopping has in general provided us the necessary convenience and other benefits, so this should be continued without doubt. What merely need to be kept in mind are the 10 anti-scam unique skills discussed above. These skills would ensure that the cheaters have no chance to scam you, thereby letting you enjoy your shopping time, without worries and qualms!

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