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Scam Websites:
How to Recognize the Scams from the Legitimate Websites
Is that website legitimate? Should you give them your
credit card number? Or is it a scam? Some websites look great and offer you
great prices on hot products, travel, dvds, or get-rich schemes. But is it
for real? It is difficult
to know whether a flashy, professional looking website has a real, reputable
company behind it, a shoddy company or an out-and-out scam.
When we receive an inquiry about a website, we
first look for the signs of both a scam and a reputable company.
What defines a scam website or scam online offer?
There is
no one indicator that is proof positive of a scam, but if a website exhibits a
number of these, we rate it is a likely scam. Here are some of the things we
look for:
-
Contacts - A reputable transactional website, that is
selling something, will have contact information, including company names,
including their registered business name ("inc', "llc", "plc", ltd", etc.),
a physical address, a mailing address, an email address or contact form and
a phone number. They operate in the open.
-
Can you reach them? Call the contact phone number.
Can you reach them during normal business hours in their time zone? Did you
get a person or a recording? If you went into voicemail, were you able
to reach a live person?
-
Where are they based? Go to
www.whois.net and look up their domain
name. Are they based in the U.S., UK, or another western country, or in a
country that has weak consumer protection laws or enforcement, such as
Eastern European countries or China, Russia or Asia?
-
Private listing in Whois, or the listing names are
associated with other scams. A private listing is fine for a personal
website, a blog, or an information-only website (like CFR), but if your
business is selling something, the Whois entry should identify the company
that owns the domain.
-
Do the links on the website work? A few broken
links here and there are normal, but if the majority are broken, that may
indicate a website that was slapped together quickly.
-
Unrelated photos or content. Do the pictures,
links and content on the pages match the theme and purpose of the page and
website?
-
Vague or inaccurate information - Reputable marketers
have access to the product details and know you will want them.
Scammers just cut and paste why they can quickly find.
-
Cloned content - Are the photos and text copied from
other websites??
-
Misdirection - if you type in a web address, but it
redirects to a different web address, that can be a sign of a scam.
-
Misrepresentation - Do the terms and conditions or
product and services match the advertising and content on their pages?
-
Hidden or hard to find terms and conditions - If the
terms are generic and not likely to impact the use of the product or costs,
it may be a not issue. But if their terms include buried requirements
that cost you money or make the product or service less useful, that's a
scam!
-
Few links in Google - If you search in Google, Yahoo
and other major search engines but find few or now results to their domain,
they are either new, unpopular or a scam.
-
No listing in related aggregate websites, like the
Better Business Bureau, or related website reviews (like Shopzilla,
Shopping.com, Bizrate). The bigger and more reputable firms will show
up elsewhere in listings for their industry.
Reviewed Websites
Not sites we review turn out to be scams; we clearly identify those that have
been found to be a scam by a court, other authority, or by those that have the
appearance of being a scam, and those we think are legitimate:
Get-Rich Scams and Work-From-Home Schemes Unmasked!
See our page
that lists the most common get-rich schemes like
Berman, Isackson and
49GetMoney.com, and others. The overwhelming majority of the time,
Get-Rich-Quick Schemes are shams,
actually promoting their own (or others) prices or products, which are terrible and at worst,
some are
identity thieves!
Some use a variety of convoluted businesses to skirt the laws and
regulations, as many, if not most Multi-Level Marketing companies do, some are
blatant rip-offs.
Reporting a Fraudulent Business Website
Of course, in all cases,
you can start by reporting it to us, using this form. We will use the
information to warn other consumers and help you to direct it to law enforcement
agencies.
A catch-all for bringing internet scams to the attention of the
FBI and FTC is the U.S. government's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at
Internet Fraud Complaints
Center. If you are looking for your
local FBI Office Listings to report a
crime or scam, click here.
Do you want to report a fraud, scam or crime to the FBI (the
Federal Bureau of Investigation), but
can't find the phone number for your nearest local FBI office?
See this page to find the closest office!
For other government
agencies to report scams, see this page. And of course,
write us! We are always interested in
hearing about any potential scams!
Example: Is is a scam, or just terrible web design?
At first glance you might think this (image below) is a legitimate website for
a legitimate business. But compare the images, text and links. What
does this ubiquitous photo of a young college-aged blond woman with a backpack
have to do with anything related to shipping cargo? And you've probably
seen that photo many times before; it seems to grace many scam websites.
Where is the link to contact information, company name, address,
phone numbers?
Why does a quick search in Google for "basecargo.com scam" turn up 10 results,
such as:
Evidently, there had been a scam on that domain; they folded, and now the domain
is hosting nothing more than sponsored listings, web-speak for advertisements.
The present website at www.basecargo.com is more a simple waste of time, than a scam.
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