RSS FeedInternet Fraud, Check the Nationality of the company.
Nationality of the company.
Information on which country is the company located in is very important for making purchase decisions since it paints a clear picture of the scenario ahead as its not easy to get the money back if the money is going to some other country than the buyer’s native.
One might file a case for fraud and win it in say LA but still the Chinese government might not budge from their stand of not returning the money not because of the bureaucracy or government’s unfriendly attitude but because your USD 15-30 is not worth contacting so many people from other country. The phone calls would cost you more than that forget the attorney charges.
While shopping internationally, be careful while dealing with countries with high fraud rate like , Russia,Indonesia, Ghana, Ukraine, Uganda, Lithuania, Thailand, Nigeria, Hungary, Belarus, Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovak Republic, RomaniaYugoslavia, Philippines, Singapore,Malaysia and also those from the countries on the Sanction list of the USA viz. Cuba, Cote d’Ivoire, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, the UNITA faction in Angola, Syria and Myanmar.
Google.
Use google to search for company’s name, owner’s name, phone numbers, address etc. and try to use the search engine features in the best possible way to save time. The textbox should be fed with the search query and the results checked.
While using the phone number as a query, Google’s online phone book feature can be used to trace back the number and the owner of the website can be found. For physical addresses, ignore the information on city, state and pin and check he address to see what the search results show and only on failure of such an attempt, should the ignored information be included in the search query and re-typed in the textbox.
Payment modes.
Prefer companies that accept a real merchant system like the credit cards instead of just relying on payment processing companies like PayPal. The fraud rates in PayPal are quite high, as it does not follow any of the strict guidelines that banks do.
In case of purchase of non-tangible products like ebooks, since PayPal does not provide any protection and the only attempt to regain the money would be via your credit card company.
The scenario is much better if both merchant system and PayPal system credit cards are acceptable to the company. PayPal is used because some customers prefer the same. Check that the personal information transmission is safe on the company’s website.
The bottom corner of the site towards the right has a padlock which when clicked twice shows whether the company has received SSL certification or not. The webpage’s address should commence with https which means that the information sent to the site is encrypted.
Home-based business.
Home-based businesses are not always fraudulent but that can be checked as well using WHOIS query and Google Earth. The latter program can be used to see aerial view of the address generated by WHOIS query.
If the location of the building is in some rural area, you need to check if the company is home-based or is fraudulent.
How is the product delivered?
Most companies selling products on line use drop-shipping tool, as no stock or upfront cost is required. The company after receiving the order from the company contacts a drop-shipping company to deliver the product to the customer. The parcel would still contain the on line company’s name and address as business label depending on the fact whether the invoice is to be included or not. Drop shipping means that the customer can buy the product at cheaper rates and this become especially worth consideration while placing bulk orders.
Usually the top five search results on search engines like Google, are among the major drop-shipping companies being used by all these on line firms. Use product number for things bought from drop-shipping site and the actual company delivering the goods would be the first listing.
Question them.
Don’t feel shy or scared in asking questions to the merchant once you have collected all the information and you can address your questions to even higher authority in the firm if the contacts answers have not satisfied you. Avoid the company if their answers do not quench your concerns.