Many people wonder if a particular site is reliable or not. These are usually shopping sites that offer very large discounts on expensive products in normal times.
There are several methods to determine the credibility of a website.
Using WOT
Install WOT!This little add-on for browsers provide you with an estimate of Internet users for each site you visit and thus determine its commercial credibility.
You can install WOT from its official site.
Visual methods
Terms of use or sale:Websites usually have "Terms of use", especially shopping sites, which have "Sales Terms". They are at the bottom of the page, and provide information on prices, deliveries, and products origin...
Legal Notice:
"The editor of a website, the author of a blog or an online shopping store shall display legal notices on its website. This is a legal requirement worldide.
A site with no imprint is illegal.
Site security:
Most reputable shopping sites have, during the transaction, the architecture https://, which defines payment security.
The https is not obtained anyhow, so it is a valuable warranty in orders. You can see if the site is https in the web browser address bar:
Attention: A site displaying https:// is not necessarily reliable. But, a site that will not display during a transaction will be considered as unreliable.
Orthography:
A site full of mistakes is invalid. Serious sites make no mistake.
Presentation:
If the Web site is disorganized (not centered pictures, overflowing text, unrecognized characters...), it is certain that it's not reliable.
Fraudulent sites generally follow the same format: all their products on the left, top bars and all brands are in bottom.
Redirects:
It is not rare that an unreliable website redirects you to sites in China, North Korea, or other "world workshop". So you can be sure that this site has no value and that you will leave your money there!
Discounts and Products:
If discounts of a site are all the same (generally 60%: it is just above 50% to be attractive and just below 70% to not look suspicious), it's a bad sign.
Whois
Whois is used to find information on the site, such as, country, administrator contact information...A commercial site in Spain domiciled in China for example, means most probably forgeries or a scam.
Just go to network-tools and on the left menu, select Whois, enter the address and click go! :
An example of infringement:
Registrant Country: SPWe see clearly that the country (CN) is China, with the person's name.
Admin Name : xx
Registrant:
Organization : zhao chun ...
Name : zhao chun ...
Address : li xia ...
City : ji nan shi
Province/State : Shandong
Country : CN
Postal Code : 250000
It's the same as sites with contact details "Anonymous" can not be of trusted.
BE CAREFUL! Do not throw headlong on discounts... because it's often forgery, which is punishable by law.
