Selling online is one of the pillars of the Internet, and there are millions of web shops. But there are also many scams. To avoid getting scammed, learn to spot questionable sites.
We are always a little hesitant when entering our credit card number to finalize a purchase on an online store where we have never done a shopping. A host of questions then arise. Is this site safe? Will the merchant actually ship my order? Is my bank account not going to be emptied? Is my card number not going to pass through the hands of hackers? How can I be sure that all the information I need to provide (phone number, address, date of birth, etc.) will not be used for other purposes? There are legitimate doubts that a few checks and good reflexes are enough, if not to remove them completely, at least to blur them.
And the scams that have been swarming the web for a long time have taken a new turn with the pandemic linked to Covid-19. With the closure of many physical stores, fake merchant sites have appeared boasting ephemeral flash sales, huge discounts, massive destocking, etc. A very popular system too: drop-shipping (for direct shipment). A salesperson or influencer is promoting a product on social media that is billed for a lot more than it should and has no idea about. And for good reason, he does not have a shop. It just automatically transmits the order to the supplier (often based in China) who takes care of shipping. By the way, the seller pockets a comfortable margin. It is therefore difficult to see clearly and not fall into the trap. Here’s how to avoid getting ripped off.
A few details can quite easily put you on notice about the unreliability of a merchant site. Here’s how to identify them.
Observe spelling and grammar
Websites that are put together in a hurry can be found fairly quickly. One often unearths spelling mistakes or abstruse turns of phrase, elements partially translated into French or even prices going from the euro to the dollar from one product to another. So many errors which attest to the merchant’s lack of seriousness and therefore to his dubious reliability.
Judge the layout
Garish colors, images of different sizes, poorly framed photos, the most basic fonts, display errors … For a serious online store, the home page which is intended to be the storefront requires care and design pleasant so as not to flee the customer. If you are having trouble finding your way around, there is a problem.
Monitor web browser alerts
By default, most web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Edge) activate security functions to prevent the appearance of pop-ups or the downloading of malicious content. If such alerts occur while browsing a merchant site, it may be a fraudulent site. A serious online store would be careful not to scare its customers with an alert.
Beware of extraordinary discounts
Is an item sold with a 90% discount? Got the lowest price right in front of you that you’ve ever seen on every other website you’ve visited? When it’s too good to be true … well, it’s not true! You have every chance of getting ripped off or of finding with disappointment that the final price is ultimately not the one displayed.
Before validating and paying for an order, a few simple precautions are in order to check that the merchant site you have in front of you offers serious guarantees.
Check site security
The vast majority of websites today use the secure connection protocol HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure). It guarantees, in theory, the security and the confidentiality of the exchanges between your computer and the contacted Web site thanks to an encryption. A site using the HTTPS protocol can be identified by the small padlock preceding its address in the address bar. If this is not the case, this indicates that the information you provide to the website (last name, first name, telephone number or credit card number, etc.) is transmitted in the clear and may be intercepted by anyone. who. Also, it is better to refrain from filling out any form and still months to make a purchase. But beware, the presence of the mention https at the beginning of the address is not enough on its own to attest to the reliability of the site.
Check the legal notices
This operation is a bit tedious, but it can allow you to lift a wolf. In France, websites are required to publish legal notices. A link to access it is usually found at the bottom of any website home page. Among these, we must find the surname, first name and address of the entrepreneur, the registration number in the trade and companies register or in the trades directory if it is an individual entrepreneur. In the case of a company, its corporate name, its legal form, the address of the registered office and the amount of the share capital must be indicated, as well as the registration number in the trade and companies register and the number of VAT identification. If the merchant site you are visiting does not present these legal notices or if they turn out to be incomplete, go your way. Please note, as the Internet has no border, the situation is different for sites established outside France and particularly outside the European Union. However, most serious merchants follow this exercise to verify that the company does exist.
Examine the T & Cs or T & Cs
The General Conditions of Use (T & Cs) or General Conditions of Sale (T & Cs) must also appear on any website. In France, the presence of the GTC is mandatory for sales to individuals. They indicate the obligations and rights of the company and the customer (product description, price, guarantees, return conditions, etc.). The absence of GTC is a flagrant sign of lack of seriousness and reliability of a merchant website since no rule is therefore established to validate the sale. Read them carefully if you want to buy a product from a website you don’t know.
What tools to use to check the reliability of a website?
The Internet is full of scams but also tools to find them. Here is something to support your common sense to make some additional checks.
Use Google Safe Browsing
Google is one of the biggest players in online advertising, but it also tries to ensure the safety of its users. The giant has therefore set up a web page to check the seriousness of the sites you visit: Google Safe Browsing. Go to his page then, in the field Check site address, enter the URL (address) of the website you are having doubts about and confirm by pressing the key Entrance of the keyboard. You will know immediately if Google has listed this site as questionable or not.
Identify the site owner
All domain names (website names) are owned by an individual or a company. A quick tour of the Whois (Who is which means in French who is it) of the site DomainBigData will allow you to know a little more about the merchant site you are visiting. Enter or paste the address of the website to inspect and validate. In a few seconds you will know everything (or almost) about its owner, the address of the company, its date of creation, etc. Information that can be reassuring.
Using ScamDoc
Do you have any doubts about the practices of a merchant site that you have just discovered? Take a little tour by ScamDoc, a free online service in French that allows you to assess the reliability of a site or, more generally, of a digital identity through a confidence index.
Indicate the address of the targeted site in the dedicated field, then click on the button Analyze. After a few seconds, the result falls with a confidence index indicated as a percentage. ScamDoc lists through the menu the details that you should listen to such as the creation date of the website, the use or not of the HTTPS protocol, the email addresses used for contacts, etc. To achieve these results, ScamDoc relies on an algorithm developed for the platform Signal-Scams which makes it possible to report potential frauds spotted on the Web. Finally, ScamDoc updates a long list of sites analyzed by Internet users thanks to its service and publishes numerous consumer comments which testify to the problems encountered.
Check what’s behind URLs
If a link in a web page of the merchant site invites you to continue your visit by clicking on it, take a few seconds to verify that you are not surreptitiously redirected to another site. If you are using Firefox or Chrome, simply hover your mouse pointer over the link (without clicking!). With Safari, expand the menu first Presentation and choose Show status bar. At the bottom left of the window is specified the address to which the link refers. A good way to make sure that you stay on the same site and that you are not sent to an unknown, shady or malicious site.
Check social media presence
Established businesses are generally present on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Check if this is the case by checking the nature and regularity of the publications but also by looking at the number of subscribers and reading the comments posted.
View online reviews
If you have serious doubts about the reliability of a website, Internet users are your allies. Type its name into the Google search engine followed by a term such as “scam”, “fraud”, “scam” or “problem”. If many people on the Internet give this website negative reviews, it is probably unreliable.