How to avoid scam in online shopping?

A variety of online stores provide customers with the widest opportunities to enrich their user experience and make profitable purchases:

• online platforms usually have a wider range of products compared to traditional retail outlets and you can easily find famous brands like wade logan;
• the buyer has the opportunity to get acquainted with the assortment and prices of several stores at once, and thus greatly saves time. No need to go to shopping centers in search of the right product at a good price;
• in addition to the variety of goods themselves, online stores provide various payment options and ways to receive an order. It’s convenient to receive the order at home and pay in cash - no problem! If you want to receive goods at work and pay for the order with a plastic card - there are no obstacles either!
• courier delivery of goods to the address eliminates the inconvenience of self-transportation of heavy, bulky or fragile purchases;
• finally, in the fight for a buyer, online stores offer many additional services: calling a courier to arrange a return, discounts on next purchases, coupons, promotional codes, and much more.

However, you shouldn’t always trust the online store. Let's take a look at a few tell-tale signs that can help you decide whether to trust an online store and make sure that it’s not a scam.

1. Details of the organization

The first thing you should pay attention to is the seller's contacts and details that are easily found and available on the site. The full name of the organization, e-mail address and phone number of the seller must be indicated. A serious online store publishes terms of work, in which the order of placing an order, delivery and payment options, a list of actions in cases when the buyer is not satisfied with the quality of the product or service are indicated in a language understandable to the buyer.

2. Contact phone is available to everyone

If a phone number is provided, then you can and should call. And if you can get through, then you should talk. An open dialogue is already one of the confirmations of the trustworthiness of the seller. If the operator is always ready to answer the call, advise the buyer about the goods, take an order by phone, then this indicates that the online store is focused on the quality of service and that a human being is behind the online platform.

3. Quick email response

This is also a sign of the online store's interest in its customers, the willingness to help with the choice. If the answer comes at least within a couple of hours, then the store is ready to work with each customer individually and not be inferior in this to the traditional retail outlet.

4. Website design

Based on how the site is designed, you can really understand how professional the organization is in its field and how much it invests in its resource. A high-quality website requires work, investment and constant technological development. A self-respecting online store will provide a detailed description of each item in the catalog, allow the buyer to visually present the product, providing each product with a beautiful and clear image. If everything looks logical, prestigious, and without blunders in grammar and visual design, this indicates the longevity of the Internet site, and hence the intentions of its founders, who are primarily interested in the fact that you, as a buyer, would return to the store again. The website of an online store is really its face.

5. A separate site, not an aggregator site

Along with online stores, the network contains mass offers of goods through groups on social networks or on ad aggregator sites. Initially, such resources were created for the one-time sale of unnecessary or used items. But later they became channels for regular trades. Cases when, according to the ad “worn jackets from Italy”, you can buy a completely new thing, and more than one, even a small wholesale batch, are not uncommon.

In this case, the price list is sent to the buyer by e-mail, the seller offers to look at the photos of the goods “by typing a specific request in the search engine,” there is no opportunity to familiarize yourself with the goods before prepayment (if required). The risks here are much greater than the benefits of the supposedly low price. In most cases, such a seller is not registered as a legal entity, which means that they aren’t responsible for the sale (delivery guarantee, service guarantee, correctly executed documents confirming the purchase - all this, most likely, will simply not happen). Money is transferred to an individual on a bank card, no one gives a guarantee that the goods will arrive.

It would be safe for the buyer here to treat the offer on the aggregator platform solely as a private announcement, insist on a meeting with the seller for a preliminary inspection of the goods and pay in cash upon receipt.

6. A reliable store does not oblige to purchase a product and does not impose it

You should not trust the information that says that you need to purchase the goods right now, and even at a discount. A regular online store is unlikely to become too intrusive to offer a product, and even more so, to force you to purchase it urgently. As well as in offline trading, of course, bonus programs, promotions and discounts are appropriate on the Internet. However, the wide possibilities of online channels for the prompt delivery of information about a profitable offer become a temptation to shorten the periods of action of the promotions themselves and a way of putting pressure on the buyer.

7. No negative reviews

Here we are not talking about “managed” reviews published by the seller on their website, and not about reviews directly about the purchased product. Remember: if there were enough customers dissatisfied with the store’s service, negative reviews on social networks and on thematic forums that are not under the control of the seller would definitely appear. All such reviews on third-party sites are well available to search engines, and therefore to potential buyers.

But good reviews about online sites are rarely written. This is due to the fact that high-quality service for a person, when it has already happened, is perceived in a natural, organic way (“it should be so”) and, unlike the negative, is not a motivator to spend time compiling and publishing a text.

8. Complete security and convenience when paying

A reliable store that you can trust will definitely indicate the methods of payment and delivery. Many online stores deliver goods directly to your home, payment is made on the spot. Reliable online stores inform their customers about the status of the order by phone, SMS, or send information to an email address. The ability to pay for an order with a plastic card on the website is an indicator that the company has a transparent current account and the absence of questions from regulatory authorities.

If all of the above signs are checked for an online store, the risk of disappointment, and even more so, loss of money and time is minimal. Good luck with your shopping experience!

Check the comment section for additional information, or share what you know or ask a question about this article, by clicking the 'View or Write Comment' button below.

Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.