How do you tell if a website is legit?

Answer 1

That would be hard to answer, because they come and go so quickly. One way to find out is to search, type in the business name and the word "scam" behind it. If there are any problems, you'll find out right away. Check the "About Us" page or "Contacts" to see if there is any address or phone number listed, you can try the phone number to see if it's legitimate. Check the "Whois" internet records at Networksolutions.com to see how long the website has been online. Never pay any kind of fee for job or opportunities, and do not give any personal information. There are websites that might help you identify scams and frauds.

Most business scams ask for money upfront, with claims of making a lot of money. If it sounds to good to be real, it usually is.

how long has the business been in existence?

Contact name and phone numbers?
Check with:

The Better Business Bureau

Internet Crime Complaint Center - ic3.gov

Federal Trade Commission - U S Government

Fraud.org

Scambusters.org

Lookstoogoodtobetrue.com

Ripoffreport.com

Better-internet-bureau.org

Wired.org

Sohojobs.org/scams ?
Rileyguide.com/scams
Wahm.com
Undressforsuccess.com
Scam.com
Check its security certificate then determine whether it is a scam or not.
?
Google, or Yahoo
You can type the site's name followed by the word "scam" to find out if it's a scam.
This is a pretty broad question, but hopefully this is what you are looking for.

When I am trying to determine if an offer is real or not, one of the things I do is go to Google and type in the URL without the .com / .ws /.xxx and then the word [scam] with the brackets. For instance using xyt.com as the URL:
xyt [scam]

Then I read through all the postings I can find relative to my search. If it is a company name, you can also go to ripoffreport.com and type in the company name to see if there are any complaints.

You can also search on domain names by going to whois.net and type in the URL there. There are probably more ways, but these are the ones I go for first.
To spot a scam on a website, go to the about page or contact page and look for a phone number, if no phone number exist it is a scam, if there is a phone number listed call to see if it is a legitimate phone number. Check the whois information to see how long the web site has been valid.

Answer 2

• Look around on the web site. Do they have a business address listed? How about a phone number? Call the phone number and ask a question.

• When you go to their checkout page, look to see if the URL starts with https:// instead of http://. The 's' in https:// indicates that this is a secure page.

• It's also a good idea to use the search engines to research a web site. Try searching for "the name of the website" "sucks" or "the name of the website" "ripoff".

• Sometimes you'll uncover pages where regular people have complained about websites. Are there a lot of pages like this? Every business is bound to have some unhappy customers, so don't be scared if you see a few, but check out exactly what they're complaining about. If every single person is saying that they didn't get what they ordered, a red flag should go up for you.

• How about affiliations? Do they have some business credentials like belonging to the BBB.org or other seller groups?

• Finally, be sure that you can pay with a secure method like a credit card. If you are ripped off, you can contact your credit card company and do a chargeback. If you are unsure about the company, never pay by check, money order or wire transfer.

Answer 3

you can tell it by the following thing

1.the rank of this website in Google

2. others opinion about this website

3.the website's history

It is a good idea to also profile unknown websites through sites like Alexa or Norton Safeweb.

Answer 4

If they are using Google Checkout, or PayPal, Then its safe since the actual website doesnt get any information except to ships the items. those also have money back protection. If they have Verisign logo on their site and process their own credit cards its usually safe. Click it and make sure its not just a picture.

Answer 5

All of what Neila Rockson said is correct. Also, you may find the Web of Trust browser addon useful. Millions of users rate websites they have used, so when you open a website you are unfarmiliar with, you can look at the icon to see what other people said. Dark or light green usually mean the website is fine. Yellow or red mean you probably should not be there. This addon is in most browser-provided addon lists, but can also be found at www.mywot.com. It is not perfect, since others could be wrong, but it's a nice tool to have anyway. Just don't trust it alone--still look around to make sure the site is safe.

Answer 6

in the address bar the website should read: https:instead of just http...the "s" stands for secure.

Answer 7

The URL should start with https:// rather than http://. Most current versions of popular Web Browsers will also have some indicator of a site's security.