Best Ways to Check if a Website is Legit or Trying to Scam You. One of the most common ways people are scammed online is through fraudulent websites. A fraud website is a site that looks legitimate but is actually trying to scam you out of your money or personal information. A quick search online can show you how many people have been duped by these types of sites, so it’s important to be able to recognize them when you see them.
10 Best Ways to Check if a Website is Legit or Trying to Scam You
The following below are the 10 Best Ways to Check if a Website is Legit or Trying to Scam You:-
Look at the web address
One of the first things to look for is whether or not the website’s domain name ends in a recognizable extension. Any reputable website will end in .com, .net, .org, and so on. If you see any other variation (say, numbers), this could be a sign of a fake website.
Another thing to check is whether or not the domain name looks like it was bought from GoDaddy for $9.99! This means that there are likely no real people behind the company who designed it and therefore could mean trouble down the road if/when something goes wrong with your purchase or service provided by said company (which is probably why they’re trying to hide their identity).
It’s also worth looking at if they have more than one version of their site out there under different domains; if so then I would recommend steering clear because either their marketing department isn’t very good or they’re trying to scam people by using multiple names across multiple platforms at once!
Careful of spelling
One of the first things you should do is check for spelling mistakes. If a website has lazy grammar, it’s most likely a scam. This doesn’t mean that every site with an incorrect spelling is trying to rip you off it just means that if there are errors on their pages, then they might not be taking care of their business very well and may be trying to scam people as well.
Also, look at the capitalization of words on the site. If they have random capital letters scattered throughout their sentences, then this could also be a sign that something fishy is going on with them!
Other signs are extra letters at the end of each word or incorrectly used apostrophes in place of quotation marks or exclamation points (there should only ever be one per sentence).
Be wary of extra letters at the end of web addresses
A web address can tell you a lot about a website. If there are extra letters at the end of it, then this is likely not going to be a legitimate website. For example:
- http://www.example-legit-website.com/80s_fashion
- http://www.example-not-legit-website/80s_fashion
In the first example, you can see that the URL ends with .com which means it’s a legitimate website and that it has been registered with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). In the second example however, there are no numbers at all in between ‘www’ and ‘example’. This means either someone hasn’t registered their domain name yet or they’re using one of those free domains (.info/.biz/.me) which do not require any type registration process or certification from ICANN!
Check for a privacy policy or terms and conditions
A privacy policy is a document that informs you of your rights regarding the information you provide to the site. If a website has a privacy policy, it’s likely legit, since it would be hard to maintain credibility without such an understanding.
To find out if a site has one, simply search for “privacy policy” in the URL bar or search box (for instance, https://www.example-site.com/privacy-policy). This should lead you right over to where this document lives on their site so that all of your questions are answered!
Verify that the website uses https encryption
You can verify that a website is legitimate by looking at its URL. If it starts with “https://,” it’s using an encrypted connection, which means the data being sent between your device and the website is secured. This means no one can see what you’re doing on that site, so if you’re shopping or banking on a site, it’s safer to use than regular http traffic.
If a site has “http://” in front of its name instead of “https://,” then there’s no encryption happening to protect your data from being exposed to anyone who might be spying on how long you spend reading about new internet trends in your free time (and we hope that happens often).
The good news is that all major browsers now default to https encryption for secure sites, so this should become less common as time goes by though there are still some sites out there today where users will have to type https:// into their address bar manually before accessing them securely.
Check for an SSL certificate
You can check if a website is legit by looking for the SSL certificate. This stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it’s an encryption protocol used to protect data that you send over public networks. It’s also used to protect your credit card information and passwords when you shop online.
For example, most websites will show a green padlock icon in the address bar when you visit them; this indicates that they’re using HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), which means their connection is encrypted with SSL/TLS (Transport Layer Security). This helps prevent hackers from stealing your personal information such as bank account numbers or passwords when visiting those sites.
Look for payment security symbols
If you see a symbol in the address bar of your browser, it means that the website is secure. Look for these symbols:
- https:// is a secure connection
- Look for “https” in your browser’s address bar. This means that the website uses HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) encryption technology to secure communications with users.
- If you don’t see either one of these symbols, then there is no guarantee that the site is safe or even legitimate!
Look for product reviews
Another way to check if a website is legitimate is by looking at their product reviews. If the site has lots of positive reviews, it might be worth your time to investigate further. To determine if a review is legitimate, pay attention to these things:
- Does the reviewer have previous experience with the product? This can be determined by checking out their history on other sites or social networks (if they are real).
- Is he or she an actual customer who has bought from that store? You can usually tell this by reading through comments and seeing if someone mentions having purchased something from them before. Also note whether they mention issues with shipping or customer service, which could give you some insight into what kind of company you’re dealing with.
- Does he or she seem like someone similar enough to yourself based on his/her profession and interests? If so, perhaps his/her opinion will prove useful in helping you reach similar conclusions about whether something is right for you as well!
Beware of too good to be true deals
The first thing to look out for is a deal that seems too good to be true. These deals are often scams and might expose you to identity theft or other fraud. If the price tag looks too low, think about it if someone was selling the real item for what they’re asking, why wouldn’t they just sell it themselves? Plus, if you don’t recognize an item (like a fancy watch), do some research before buying anything from anyone who isn’t an authorized dealer of that brand.
Checking reviews helps determine whether or not a website is legitimate. A company with bad reviews probably isn’t worth your time or money!
Know how to enable two-step verification
What is two-step verification?
Two-step verification, also called 2SV or 2FA, is a method of confirming your identity when signing into accounts. It’s a security feature that protects you from being hacked by requiring both your password and another type of authentication to access a service. By having the system verify the authenticity of each individual user, it makes it easier for you to make sure that only you can access the account and its sensitive information.
- How do I set up two-step verification?
You can set up two-step verification in many ways depending on what kind of service you want to use. But there are some common steps across all methods:
- Visit the website’s settings page for two-step verification (for example, Google’s here). You’ll need to know how much time is left before your existing login expires before going through this process;
- If not, log out first so that when you revisit later after setting up 2SV with new credentials such as an app password or passcode sent via SMS text message (which we’ll get into next), there won’t be any issues accessing your account because your current session has expired due solely on not having met certain requirements like answering questions correctly within 30 seconds or entering a specific code generated by an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Authy which generates six codes per day per device/phone number connected
Learning how to spot fraudulent websites is an important skill.
As a consumer, you are no doubt familiar with the sensation of seeing an amazing deal online. You are ready to buy, but something stops you. Perhaps it’s the website’s URL is it really what it appears to be? Or perhaps it’s the lack of SSL certificate and payment security symbols that make you uneasy. Whatever your concern may be, learning how to spot fraudulent websites is an important skill.
If a site seems too good to be true or otherwise suspect, don’t rush into making any purchases there. Instead:
- Check out their website address by typing it into your browser and seeing if it matches up with what they say in their ad/email/etc. If not (for example, if their ad says “www.123fakewebsite” but the actual URL is “http://www.”), then proceed carefully; this could mean that this company is trying to pull one over on you!
- Look for SSL certificates and other payment security symbols on any credit card forms—these show that the site has been approved by industry watchdogs who ensure its integrity as well as provide protection against fraudsters stealing information from shoppers’ computers when they use them at checkout time (if these aren’t present then go back up at step #1).
- Do some research on Google using keywords like “product reviews” or just type in “[brand name] review” after clicking Search Tools > Search Options> Labs > Remove Results For [Brand]. If anything comes up about poor customer service experiences or complaints about products being defective then run away quickly because there will definitely be trouble ahead!
Conclusion
With these tips, you can be a pro at spotting fraudulent websites. But remember to always be vigilant and cautious so that you don’t get scammed yourself!
