Online Shopping Scams have been making their appearance on the internet over the last few years. Local Technology website, My Broadband, recently posted an article containing tips to spot an online shopping scam. We thought that this information would be useful for users of the Junk Mail website. We do take the Safety and Security of our users seriously at Junk Mail.
The internet has a reputation for playing host to con-artists and scam websites. Among these scammers are fake retail websites, which often have goods for sale at ridiculously low prices, tempting gamers looking to score a bargain on new hardware purchases. There have been scammers using the Junk Mail website attempting to lure Junk Mail users onto fake shopping websites.
Landmark Computers site owner Andrew van der Nest shared some advice with My Broadband. He recommends that you should ask yourself questions like “Do all the links work?”, “Do they have a landline number?”, “Are these prices too good to be true?” before making a purchase on an online retail site. Most scam websites will have loads of broken links and usually just a cell number with a web based e-mail account (@gmail.com, @hotmail.com, @webmail.co.za). If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Local scam websites are even easier to spot, thanks to online services such as Hello Peter and Price Check. For those of you who did not know, Hello Peter is a site where customers can report their experiences with a variety of companies, including online retailers. A large amount of negative feedback on Hello Peter could serve as an indication that the retail site may be a scam. Price Check is an online price aggregator which allows users to compare prices of various goods at a range of local online retailers. A site not included in Price Check’s results may not necessarily be a scam site, but the chances of it being legitimate if it is included in the results is far higher.
You should also be on the lookout for their fake VAT and registration numbers. International sites are also easy to spot, with bad grammar and poor site design being two obvious signs that the site is a scam. Hunting for the cheapest price online is always a good idea, but take care not to get scammed by a fake store. Bearing all that we’ve mentioned in this post in mind, you should be able to avoid scam websites.
We hope that this information has proven to be useful to our readers. Feel free to share this post with your friends to make them aware of Online Shopping Scams.
Read these posts on the Junk Mail blog for more information about scams:
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