In today’s digital transformation world, we completely depend on websites for everything from banking and shopping to socializing and searching. Although, not all websites are reliable. With cyber threats like fake e-commerce sites, phishing, and data breaches on the rise, it is important to know how to verify a website’s originality before connecting with it. This whole blog will walk you through the important steps to ensure that a website is legal, helping you remove scams and save your personal information.
Look for Contact Information
- About Us and Contact Pages
Legal businesses and companies particularly offer clear contact details, including a phone number, registered address, and email. If you can not easily find this information or if the information seems duplicate, consider it a wrong website.
- Customer Service
Try to get in touch with the business through the given information. A good website will have good customer service. If you receive a quick response that feels off or do not receive a response at all, it is a sign that it might be wrong.
Check the URL Carefully
- HTTPS vs. HTTP
Looking at the website’s URL is the first thing. Ensure it starts with “https://” rather than “http://”. Here the “s” means secure, showing that the website is utilizing Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to save your data. While HTTPS does not guarantee a site is legal, it is a good first step.
- Domain Name
Focus on the domain name. Scammers frequently build fake sites with URLs that look like real ones but may have slight dissimilarities, like “g00gle.com” instead of “google.com”. Check the spelling and watch out for uncommon extensions like “.info” or “.biz” rather than more common “.com” or “.org”.
- Subdomains
Be aware of websites that have subdomains that are similar to famous brands, like “paypal.signin.com.securityalert.com”. The real domain is what matters, not the subdomain.
Examine the Website Design and Content
- Professional Design
Real websites commonly have a professional, polished design. Look for spelling mistakes, low-quality images, and poor grammar, which are frequent signals of a duplicate site. Scammers may not invest much time into making their sites look legal.
- Content Quality
Look at the quality and relativity of the content. Good websites have well-written, detailed content that is updated commonly. If the content seems general, old, or irrelevant to the website’s supposed purpose, that is a warning signal.
- Broken Links
A site with various broken links or pages that do not load completely can show that it is not managed by a legal company.
Verify the Site’s Security Certificates
- SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate gives details about the website owner. You can click on the padlock next to the URL in your browser’s address bar to see the SSL certificate information. This should give you the name of the company that owns the site. If the certificate is not found or expired, it is an important warning sign.
- Trust Seals
Many websites display trust seals from popular companies like Norton, McAfee, or BBB. So, these can be duplicated. To verify a trust seal, click on it to see if it leads to the certifying firm’s site. If it does not, the seal may be counterfeit.
Check for Online Reviews and Reputation
- Search for Reviews
Before connecting with a website, specifically for shopping or financial transactions, look for reviews online. Websites like Trustpilot, Sitejabber, or even Google reviews can give insights into other users’ experiences.
- Social Media Presence
Look for the site’s social media platforms. Legal businesses mainly manage active users on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. See the engagement and comments if the accounts are not active, have little following, or are full of negative comments, be serious.
- Respect
Sites like the BBB or customer protection agencies can give information on a site’s respect. A rapid search can tell you if the website has any complaints of fraud.
Perform a WHOIS Lookup
- Domain Information
WHOIS lookup services enable you to find out who owns a domain when it was registered, and the contact details for the owner. If the domain was newly created or the information is hidden, it might be a scam site. Legal businesses specifically have public WHOIS data.
- Registration History
Search for how long the domain has been registered. Scam sites are frequently new or have a short life, while legal sites tend to be started and have been for many years.
Check for Malware or Phishing Warnings
- Browser Warnings
Contemporary browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Safari frequently show warnings if a site is seen as phishing or has malware. Do not avoid these warnings.
- Malware Scanners
Use Google’s Safe Browsing tool or VirusTotal to know if a website has been reported for spam or phishing. These tools check URLs and offer a safety report.
Consider the Payment Procedure
- Secure Payment Gateways
Legal business sites use safe payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or famous credit card processors. If a site only gets payment through unconventional procedures like cryptocurrency, bank transfers, or gift cards, it is spam.
- Checkout Process
During the checkout procedure, ensure that the URL is “https://” and that the site does not redirect you to an uncommon payment page.
Conclusion
Verifying a website’s authenticity is important in saving yourself from online fraud, scams, and cyber threats. So carefully check the site because your online safety is worth the big effort.
FAQs
- How to verify a website’s authenticity?
Look for the secure padlock given by browsers.
- How do you check if a site is legal or not?
- Check the URL.
- Verify the trust seal.
- Make sure your connection is secure.
- Look through the content.
- Find out who owns the web domain.
- Use Google’s Safe Browsing Transparency Tool.
- See the reviews.
- What is the meaning of verifying authenticity?
It means the quality of the website is real or fake.
- How do you check authenticity?
To check authenticity includes thinking about complex issues, and not making an easy yes or no decision about a book.
