Reporting scams is necessary to stop
people getting cheated in the same manner in the future. It is also important
to stop any kind of activity which may harm the interests of national security.
In this article, we will discuss how to determine whether a website is fake. If
you suspect the possibility of online fraud, then reporting scams might be the
only way to effectively address the issue.
1. The copyright date should always be checked at the
bottom of the website. The dates should be up to date as this gives an
indication as to whether the website is regularly maintained or not. In the
either case, the website owners will not spend much time in maintaining the
website. If the date is too old, one has to be sure that the website is
abandoned and one should not do any business there.
2. The About Us page in the website should be quite assuring to avoid the need to go for reporting scams. A good page always gives the reasons for the
existence of the company and the people behind it. There should be photographs of
the recent happenings, press releases and job listings. If the company is a
publicly traded one, there will also be a whole lot of financial information.
3. A proper company always provides a real contact detail.
The addresses provided will be real, the telephone number will be genuine and
every other contact detail will be true. The address can be copy pasted into
Google Maps to check for authenticity. There should also be a sales and
customer support telephone number. If all these are not there, reporting scams
may become essential
4. The blog section of the company should have recent
blogs. There should also be recent press releases or news articles. If there is
no news or press releases for years, there are chances that the website is
abandoned. Nowadays, every organization has a strong online presence. If this
is the case with this company, their Facebook profile should also be checked.
5. The domain name of the organization gives us a lot of
information about the genuineness of the company. ‘Whois’ can be used to find
out the name of the owner of the domain. If the domain’s contact details in the
Whois database do not match the details on the company’s website, then there is
a need for reporting scams.
6. Customer feedbacks often forms the most integral part of
trusting online websites. The forums or the blog comments should be used to
find them out. Often too many positive comments should be a cause for suspicion
as frauds often hire people for posting these biased feedbacks or post it
themselves.
The above steps, if followed, make
it easier for users to use online businesses. If one has to look for a website
and finds some of the above mentioned inconsistencies, they can immediately
warn themselves and avoid these websites. There are various organizations for
reporting scams, so their help should always be taken to prevent future attacks
on individuals.
