How to Identify Fake Online Stores

How to Identify Fake Online Stores [7 Ways] to Avoid Getting Scammed and Ripped Off Online

Not all online too-good-to-be-true deals will show all of these scam warning signs but if the company you are thinking of buying from shows any of these, think twice about being ripped off.

1. Look for language hiccups. A fake online store that is a scam is usually not a United States based company so there may be obvious grammatical and spelling errors that should not be there if the actual website was written by a real company.
2. Prices that are just TOO damned good to be true. As an example, I almost fell prey to an ad that was on Facebook.com for an electric bike and was on sale for only $59 with free shipping. when I clicked on the ad and visited the website it looked professional enough but when I looked online for the model of electric bike they were selling for just $59. The url to this website is https://eveoihw.shop. I saw that it normally sold for around $1,500 and that was a huge red flag there's no way a legitimate company can offer you THAT much of a deal.
3. Check the company contact information. In my example above, it seemed like a valid company because they did have a phone number, and email address and the text that said contact us anytime! When I called the number on the website it was a disconnected number.
4. Look for parts of the website that don't work. For example links or buttons that you click that don't do anything. Usually these websites that are put together by scammers are not complete websites just complete enough to fool people into thinking they're legit if there's links and buttons and other things that don't work properly that's a huge red flag that they are a scam.
5. Do a whois lookup on the company. Whois is a free online service where you input the URL of the website and you'll get information such as when the website was created and when the registration date or expiration date for the URL expires and has to be renewed. If the website is very new no more than a year or two old and the expiration date is no more than a year away then run, don't do business.
6. Do a Google search for siteurl.com scam. In my example above I did a Google search for eveoihw.shop You can check user reviews on sites such as www.trustpilot.com before you make your purchase online.
7. To help protect yourself, pay with a credit card like mastercard or visa and contact your credit card company first to make sure they cover you in case you make a purchase that is a scam. Use an additional security code, such as Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode when paying with your credit cards online. With this setup, the person needs to enter an extra code before the payment can be processed. It will protect you from when your credit card details are sold to other scum bags.

Probably the safest thing you can do is make sure you only do business with well-known comma legitimate online vendors such as Amazon.com and eBay.com. I know a really incredible deal can be tough to pass up but the old adage better safe than sorry applies here.

The thing you should be most concerned about is not the one time you're going to get ripped off when you purchase the item but how many others scumbags in the world are going to get a hold of your credit card information and go nuts. Trust me, you don't want to deal with this nightmare.

Whois Lookup Registration Expiration Dates Too Short

Whois Lookup Registration Expiration Dates Too Short