Our daily lives are largely connected to the internet. Whether it is for work or personal purposes, we still use it a lot. It is a great tool/means/way to communicate with large groups of people, advertise your company, search for information or find entertainment. The World Wide Web is accessible to almost everyone which is why it is wise to use it cautiously. Many sites on the internet may seem like they represent someone or something but are actually scam sites set up by impostors with illegal objectives.
To find out if a website is what it claims to be you can follow these steps:
First of all, if a site looks strange, it is usually better not to visit it. Look for correctness of spelling. Many fake sites have a lot of spelling mistakes in the texts. Lots of advertisements, banners and pop-ups can indicate a malicious website. On the other hand there might not be any flashy banners. There are the usual buttons for different sections but sometimes they are not clickable. This can be an indicator that the site you are visiting is a scam.
It should not be difficult to find information about the owner of the website. In case of an official company website, there should be information available like the official name of the company, the register number and contact info. Corporate websites usually also have terms of using the site and copyright and trademark indications at the bottom of the pages.
When you find something on the internet, which you are interested in and the company’s website seems safe, then you can try to get in touch with customer service on regular business hours via phone or e-mail. Before calling it is also good to check if the provided location of the company and the phone number country code match. When you find a company claiming to be in the UK and the phone number has a Somalian country code, it might be safer not to call. If you call many times and you continuously reach a voicemail or get automated responses, which sound different from the typical call center guiding instructions, it is better to not go on. Sometimes businesses are using a call center in which the response is automated at first but it is like that because then the system can direct/route your call to the right service. When you do manage to reach a real person, try asking them a few questions until you are satisfied and certain it is safe to carry on.
Look for customer feedback and reviews. One thing I have noticed about scam websites is that every comment about the thing they are advertising has been posted in the past few days and most of the time they have many spelling mistakes in the posts.
You can always use a search engine to check the reliability of a website. Probably one of the easiest ways to know whether a website is safe is using Google. Instead of Google search you can use their Safe Browsing application. Just type in „http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=” before the URL of the page and Google will let you know if the site is dangerous or not.
Learn to trust your instincts. If there is something on a website that just looks off to you and you feel like you should not be visiting it, just close the window before there can be any harm.
This is by far not a complete list of things to follow when surfing the internet, these are just some of the basic ideas and there is no guarantee that acting by these steps will keep you 100% safe.
Please tell us about your experiences. Share in the comments below, what you have found reliable and what commonalities have you noticed on scam sites. We and the other readers highly appreciate your feedback.
By Joosep K. Kuljus