By checking these sources, you can tap into a broader variety of opinions and personal experiences that provide a more nuanced view of a website’s trustworthiness. Social proof is one of the most powerful tools websites use to establish trust. Always check out user, Google, and Trustpilot reviews if they’re available. This is particularly important when dealing with new online shopping websites.

You can report the fake website to Microsoft by submitting its URL on the Microsoft Security Intelligence page. You can report the fake website to Google by submitting its URL on the Google Safe Browsing page. By checking the website popularity you can find out if a website is popular among Internet users so you can better decide what to do.

It can help prevent people from falling victim to these online scams. If you enter your credentials on a fake bank account website, scammers might steal your money or commit identity theft to open new accounts in your name. Malware distribution sites may also be disguised as trusted pages to infect devices. Such sites often feature suspicious URLs and fake password login pages. For example, a scam site may appear as an online banking website, tricking you into entering your credentials for scammers to steal. Phishing links attempt to trick users into clicking links in order to disclose sensitive information, such as login credentials or financial details.

You can quickly determine whether a site has been reported as part of a phishing scam by entering its URL. For example, it tells you if the site uses encryption to protect your data, along with the site’s level of verification certificate. The easiest way to tell that you’re on a fake website is when the domain name doesn’t match the official website for the company.

Read reviews of the site

1. Sometimes a website looks so spammy, you can tell immediately without having to actually check the site’s reputation.
2. One of the ways you can stumble upon a fake USPS website is by clicking a link in a USPS phishing email.
3. Always exercise caution when clicking links from unknown or suspicious sources, and avoid downloading files from untrusted websites.
4. To quickly check if a site is legit or a specific URL is safe, use a website safety checker like Google Safe Browsing.
5. It is calculated using the information contained in your Equifax credit file.

What you can avoid, however, is making a mistake on one of these sites — such as clicking on a link, giving up private information, or sending money. If scammers tricked you with a fake website that prompted you to click on a link or share personal data, you should take immediate action to protect your information and identity. Fake sites can steal your information and your money or infect your device with malware. To stay safe, you need to know what these sites look like and how you can avoid them.

They may use tactics such as impersonating trusted entities, creating a sense of urgency or fear, or promising a big reward to manipulate the user’s emotions. To check if a link is safe, you can use online link scanners such as Norton Safe Web, which can check a link against multiple antivirus engines and security databases to detect potential threats. To figure out if an ecommerce website is safe, try searching “is [ecommerce shop] a scam? ” or “[ecommerce] shop reviews.” If it’s a scam, you’ll likely find a lot of negative reviews. If you can’t find anything, avoid that particular shop and find a legit, well-reviewed one instead.

Look for user reviews, and check for reports of scams

If you’re unsure about a site, click on the padlock and then check any additional information about the security certificate. With scammers using fake websites in most of the latest phishing and vishing scams, your best defense is simply knowing how to spot and avoid them. For even more protection, consider enlisting the experts at Identity Guard. If you’re using a computer, you can hover over the link with your cursor. If it shows a different domain than what you expected, it may be unsafe. If a link doesn’t look safe (or you just aren’t sure), it’s best to not click it.

Reliable sites

Instead, go directly to the site by typing the URL into your browser to avoid exposing your information to scammers. The first step to avoiding fake websites is to know what you’ll see if you ever inadvertently land on an unsafe site. Most modern browsers are designed to make navigating the internet easier and safer.

For instance, poor grammar, suspiciously low prices, and URLs that misspell real brand names. Recognizing these (and many other) red flags can prevent you from compromising your personal details or making unsafe payments. Read on- and off-site reviews for mentions of fraud, non-delivery, or even identity theft. Scammers often create fake bot accounts on review sites in order to build trust. Sites with valid security certificates also have “HTTPS” in their URLs, and padlock icons in the address bar. These aren’t safety guarantees, however, as many fake sites have SSL certificates as well.

This may include small misspellings or characters that look similar to others in order to spoof real URLs, such as replacing the letter “o” with the number “0.” Before you spend money at an online store, you can verify who owns the site by running a Whois search. This search will tell you who owns a website so you can make a more informed decision about where you want to spend your money. If a site is owned by someone other than the purported owner (or you can’t find a way to contact them), you’re probably better off taking your business to a more reputable company. If you’re checking out a new site and aren’t sure how to tell if a website is secure or if it’s safe to buy from it, reading reviews of the site can show you what other people think. Go to your favorite search engine, type in the site name, and add “reviews” at the end of your query.

Alternatively, use the Wayback Machine to see archived versions of the website and determine if it’s been used for multiple purposes. There are some good free resources that you can use to check if a website is safe to use. A dark web scanner scours the hidden corners of the internet for your stolen credentials. While online reviews may not always be the most reliable — especially with heavily curated on-site reviews — you can still learn a lot from the experiences of others.

But even safe websites can contain annoying ads or spam, online tracking, and browser fingerprinting technology that can pick you out of the crowd. Dangerous websites can harbor advanced malware threats, including spyware and ransomware. And thanks to the development of drive-by-download techniques, sometimes you don’t even have to click on anything to get infected — simply landing on the page can be enough to compromise your security. Any of these signs mean the website is not safe to visit, and you should find a legitimate site instead — especially for online shopping. If you’re already on a website, but can’t tell if the site is legit, look for a privacy policy. Reputable websites should have a privacy policy page, as it’s the law in many countries.

Everyone has their definition of how many pop-ups are too many, but if a site has so many pop-ups that you can’t actually navigate it, that means there are too many. If why do companies prefer debt financing over equity financing there are multiple pop-ups and none are related to the site you tried to visit, that’s another sign that you may be on an unsafe website. If a site doesn’t have a privacy policy, it may mean that they don’t collect any data, or it could mean that they don’t want to let you know what information they are collecting. Determine whether a website is likely to be legitimate or a scam … before you visit it.

Check the Website’s Encryption Certificate

A good rule of thumb is that if a site advertises prices that are all 50+% off, you should take  steps to confirm it’s not a fake website. For example, verify it with a website checker, look for spelling and grammar mistakes, and check the domain age and information against what’s listed. Enter the website’s URL and you’ll be able to see details such as the owner’s organization name, country of registration, and age of the domain. It’s probably a fake website if the company claims to be registered in the United States, but their Whois Lookup query shows that they’re in another country.