There are two types of sites whose reputation is important to check before using them . 1) Online shopping sites
When you want to buy something on the Internet, for example to look for discounted clothes, shoes at much lower prices or something else, you can find many online shopping sites, often with sensational discounts.
Are these sites good or just a deception to capture credit card data or simply to get money without sending anything "> Fake commercial websites are similar or even more attractive than any other legitimate e-commerce site, with beautiful graphics, good HTML, with all the brands of the various payment methods such as credit cards, paypal and with logos related to (fake) certificates of reliability.
In another article we saw the best sites to buy clothes and shoes with free shipping and made more reliable.
2) Program download sites
There are many sites for downloading free programs that are also a scam and that often install viruses on your computer.
We are not only talking about software but also about other types of material, perhaps pirated.
In another article, the most reliable sites where to download PC programs and software
In either case it is important to find out the reputation of that website to understand if you can trust it and buy or download from there .
1) Check if the website is dangerous with automatic tools that also check reputation and reliability.
You can check any site by checking the ratings given by those who use that tool, pasting the address of that site in the box provided by the application.
These are very reliable free web apps including:
1) Norton Safe Web
2) urlvoid.com
3) TrendMicro
4) MyWOT, a popular and reliable extension for Chrome and Firefox.
5) Webutation, an aggregator of judgments from multiple tools
Each of these online tools indicates, for a site or address, if it is spam, a site with a bad reputation or even if it is unknown and therefore not yet tried, to be used carefully.
The site whose reputation you want to check is analyzed with multiple scan engines to facilitate the detection of malicious, fraudulent or even virus-infected websites.
Now let's see how to check and find if an online shopping site is good or not by referring to another post for the guide to online security against hackers, phishing and cyber criminals and for programs to surf the Internet safely.
2) Look at the prices, if they are much lower than those of other trusted sites such as Amazon or Zalando (if we talk about clothes and shoes), then it is better to stop for a moment to check.
Discounts of 50%, 55% or even more are suspicious on the internet.
The site can also sell fake or counterfeit stuff or be aimed at stealing money.
3) Look for information about the company
Check the text written at the bottom of the page and look for the company name and a VAT registration number or similar.
A shop, even if foreign, must always be from a company whose name can be searched on Google to also find a phone number, an address and some identifying information.
There may also be private citizens in the world who sell illegally, but it would be a bit strange.
You can also search for a contact page to find the owner of the site.
4) Compare the copyright date with the domain creation date .
If the site claims to have been born in 2005 and there is a text with " Copyright 2005-2013 " written, it is worth seeing if it did.
Then go to the Whois site, type the address of this site, the domain, and check its creation if it matches or if it has only been active for a few months.
I would also avoid buying clothes or anything else from websites that are too young, even if they seem reliable, unless they have already acquired a proven reputation or if they are partners of famous brands (always in a proven way).
5) Check who is the owner of the website
The online store site may not be from the same company.
From the whois data, you can see if the site was registered in Beijing (China) or in particular places where tax checks are not exactly the best.
Personally, I would not buy shoes or clothes from a website that was registered in China, because it is certainly not an original retailer, unless it is an actually Chinese brand or if you are willing to buy a fake.
6) Make sure the site has HTTPS support
This is fundamental, any online payment must be made on sites that have the https address, otherwise better give up.
READ ALSO: Surf https on banking sites, online stores, Facebook and others, with secure connection
7) Analyze the domain name
If you search for the site name on Google and you find various similar sites with similar domain such as, for example: buy-cheap-shoes.com, buycheapshoes.com, super-cheap-shoes.com, jordanairmaxshop.com or similar, better avoid buying from there.
A legitimate website should never contain the word "cheap" or the name of the brand in the internet address, moreover if more similar sites exist it means that it is a trick to be found and cheated as many people as possible.
8) Check that it is written in the correct English or Italian language
A site may also contain grammatical errors, but if these are many and coarse, which seem to be due to an automatic translation, then better be wary.
With these tips, there is no risk of buying online from scam sites or downloading viruses disguised as legitimate software.
READ ALSO: Cheats and apps to buy in online stores at the lowest price
