There comes a day when we all find ourselves clicking on that fateful link which sends us into the rabbit hole of online shopping. With prices ranging from all the pennies in your piggy bank to your first born child, there is still one question we must all ask. Is online shopping reliable?
Rumours of sketchy shops stealing credit card information and faulty products flood online forums, but are all of these stories even reliable? Sure, if a store is offering a mint-condition iPhone 6 for $50, you should probably click away. But perfectly trustworthy websites get bad reputations from these tall tales. Of course, there is no bullet-proof evidence that can be used to detect scams on the Internet, but there are indicators to tell whether or not an online store is reliable.
Here are some simple steps to follow if you want to order off of a website:
1. Always check to see if PayPal is an option. If you or your parents are wary of credit card scams, pre-paid PayPal cards are available at most gas stations. This way, absolutely no information about your credit cards get leaked, and you can keep refilling your account whenever you want to buy something. Using the PayPal method, you can also make sure that you don’t overspend! Once the pre-existing balance is depleted, it is time to stop adding things to your cart.
2. There are plenty of websites that will check for internet fraud. Just plug in the link to whichever website you want to order off of, and most sites will either turn up with a scam free message or percentage of reliability. Although one may give you the go while another turns out with a red stop, they are a quick and very accessible source. It might be wise to try several of them in order to get a general consensus.
3. If you are too lazy for the above steps, simply scroll down to the bottom (or find it at the top) where the website displays all the methods of payment that they accept. Normally, trusted websites will have pictures that you can click on that will take you to, for example, MasterCard’s website. If you cannot click on the pictures, it may be a sign of laziness, or it may be a sign of scandal.
4. Lastly, the most important give-away is whether or not a phone number, email, and address of the company is provided. If not all of these pieces of information can be provided, you can suspect general fishiness.
Overall, just try to stay away from online shopping and save up some money!
