How to Shop Online and Judge the Authenticity of a Website

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 Shopping online is a great way to save yourself some money and to search out the very best deals. However the unregulated nature of the internet means that there are a whole host of websites out there that are less than scrupulous. Making sure you are shopping on a genuine and secure site then is an absolute necessity to keeping your personal and financial details safe. With that in mind we’ve put together a list of top tips to spotting a fake website and judging the security of the site.

Spotting a fake when to be wary

Ok initially ask yourself how you arrived at the site. Was it through a direct search engine search or did you click an advertisement, link or banner from another site? If you clicked a banner or link then you should instantly be on your guard as there is no guarantee that the site you have been redirected to is a genuine one. If you used a search engine did you make a general query or head to a recognisable companies website? If the former then be cautious as whilst the search engine may be reputable that doesn’t mean that its results are. Generally, though, you should be cautious of all sites that you don’t know or are not direct company sites.

Spotting a fake address

A common technique used by fake websites is to have a very similar name to the company you are already looking for. So say you are trying to head to paypal.com from another site using a link or banner or some such. Now a fake website will often change one letter or add in an additional letter in the home that you won’t spot it. So paypal.com becomes peypal.com or paypalltd.com or some other variation. The site itself will look almost identical to the genuine one with this slight differentiation. If you are unsure whether the address you are looking at is genuine then search for the company through your search engine where the official sites will be the top result the majority of the time. If the addresses match then you can proceed.

Spotting page discrepancies

Often fake sites will have minor discrepancies that you won’t necessarily notice on a casual glance or will spot but think nothing of. The most common of these are spelling mistakes which are not always major but enough to give you pause for thought. For example:

“these is a lot of misttakes in this sentence that a casul glance mite miss if their wernt so many”

Even one simple mistake should make you pause as big companies have professional writers and editors on their staff who will be there with the express purpose of eliminating these kind of errors.

Secondly look at the layout, logos and images on the site. If it is a site that you are familiar with is it as you remember it? If not it’s probably worth rechecking.  If it’s not a site you are familiar with then check that the logos, images etc are of a high quality and that they are exact duplicates of ones available on well-known sites. Whilst images are easy to replicate they are often altered subtly so it is worth paying attention.

What’s missing?

Finally check that everything that should be available on the site is such as secure payment forms, full terms and conditions and privacy policies. If you can’t find any of these details or contact details (including a physical address) then you should steer clear of the company.

Finally

Different countries have their own local resources for benficial information. If you shop online in Australia, the Australian government have a variety of resources that you can use to bolster your safety precautions. Scamwatch.gov.au is a good place to start as are the many consumer review panels you can find through a quick search engine search. Using these to review companies and keep up to date with the latest scams will help you avoid them. Stay safe and happy shopping.