HOW TO KNOW IF A WEBSITE IS SAFE TO BUY

Posted by Tienda Yaloveo.es on July 8th, 2022

We are browsing the Internet and after several searches we find the product we need. We are about to pay it after adding it to the shopping cart and the following question arises. Is this website safe to buy?

And it is very common to find yourself in this type of situation where the security of an online store is questioned. How do we know if the online store is trustworthy?

CAN I TRUST ALL WEBSITES AND ONLINE STORES?
Obviously NOT. There are numerous websites bent on scamming users who are looking for a product, so we must take extreme precautions when making payments online.

 The large online stores that dominate sales in Spain such as Amazon, El Corte Inglés or Ebay do not pose a problem when making purchases since they have security and protection systems that avoid any type of problem when making the payment.

However, not all online purchases are made through these technological giants, but many websites today sell their products and not all of them meet the security standards required to pay online, either by card or by another payment method.
Below we are going to summarize a series of tips to detect if a website or online store is safe to buy or if, on the contrary, it is advisable to close the browser or continue searching.

Know who we buy from
If we want to know if a page is trustworthy, the first thing we should do is browse it to check its contact information. This is something basic to know if we are facing a serious website or if, on the contrary, we should run away.

We recommend that you consult the contact information and the "Who We Are" or "We" section to learn a little more about the company that manages the website.

*In the event that we cannot consult the information, we may begin to suspect that this website is not a good place to buy.

Legality of the page
Another point that we must consult in our small security audit is to check if the page has the sections of:

Legal warning
Purchase conditions
Legal Notice and Conditions of Purchase (or Sale) are pages that all ecommerce must have to comply with the different regulations such as the RGPD, the LSSI or the LOPD. These sections must describe the data of the company or the person responsible for sales, where we can exercise the rights of claim and/or return and the shipping conditions.

LSSI LOPD web adaptation
 

If a website does not contain this data, it is probably not trustworthy to buy online. Serious companies try to offer maximum transparency and credibility to their clients, which is why they decide to legally adapt their website to avoid sanctions and improve their brand image.

*A tip we give you is to review the legal sections thoroughly. Many online stores only create the links to give the impression that they comply with legal regulations without completing the sections properly.

Legal adaptation of your website
 

Safe browsing web pages
One of the most common indicators to know if a web page is secure is the SSL security certificate. If we see that the page in question begins with https and has the green symbol, it means that the information is encrypted and our data will be somewhat protected.

ssl security
The pages with HTTPS have encrypted data, although this does not mean that the web page is 100% secure since there are methods to hack this data, although it is a fundamental step for our online store to begin offering security in transactions.

Our advice is that you have a website with a security certificate that is endorsed by a relevant certification authority.

It is possible that a website does not have the security certificate (SSL) installed on all the pages, but if it does have it on the pages where payment data or personal data are entered, it would be sufficient, since it would mean that the data is encrypted.
 

SSL Security Certificates for your website or online store
 

Online stores with discounts or impossible bargains
Online stores often offer occasional discounts and offers to the most loyal users, but they do not give away their time or money. With this we want to warn you that there are numerous websites on the Internet with products at very attractive and suspicious prices. The trick? You already know, those prices are not real.

How do we know if the price of a product is real? It's simple, you can make a simple comparison to find out if that price is for an authentic or fake product. The safest thing is that you will find branded products at impossible prices and call your attention. We recommend you to avoid these pages since they will not only be imitation products but it will probably be a fraudulent website.

I would not give my credit card information to a page that sells imitations. If the page is also foreign, all the alarms are multiplied.

suspicious information
There are pages that transmit insecurity despite the fact that they comply with everything mentioned in the previous points. This is usually caused by:

Poor content: poorly translated texts or in other languages, poor quality images, etc.
Poor usability: pages that don't load, few products in stock, etc.
Little known or suspicious payment methods: payment by BTC, Western Union, etc.
Suspicious domain: the chosen website name is suspicious as it is too specific or contains exact keywords such as "compraraairmaxbaratas.com"
online shopping fraud
 
If we find a web page of this style, it is best that we leave it aside to avoid problems. They are probably pages created relatively recently and that do not last long on the Internet since they end up being closed.

Website design
The design of a web page or an online store says a lot about the company behind it. If, for example, we see a very gridded website with hardly any changes or customizations, it is probably a basic template of some online store manager such as PrestaShop or Magento.

Online store managers e as Prestashop or Magento there is nothing wrong with them, only that they are the most used for fraudulent online stores due to their ease of installation.

If, on the other hand, we see a web page with a signature from a web design agency like Lobocom at the bottom of the page or some well-known badge, we will surely be facing a serious project that we will not have to worry about.

WHAT TO DO IF WE HAVE MADE A PURCHASE ON A FRAUDULENT WEBSITE
If you have read this little security guide a little late and you have ventured to make a purchase on a fraudulent website, the first thing we recommend is to contact the online store to try to find out the status of the order.

If we are unable to contact them, fraud alarms are activated. In any case, it is best to file a complaint with the Police and alert other users of possible fraud to prevent the website from continuing to operate.

In the event that we suspect that our card details or our Paypal account may have been used or stolen, we must disable credit cards immediately and notify Paypal of possible fraudulent use.

We also recommend changing the possible passwords of your Paypal accounts or your bank accounts as soon as possible.