How to identify a legitimate website

Introduction

Technology has made it easy for us to obtain information, communicate with people, and carry out commercial transactions. Today, you can go to the internet to search for information and it will be there at your disposal. You can also use the medium to buy and sell as well as to teach and learn. Things are really becoming easier since the discovery of what can be achieved through the internet.

But, despite how good the internet is, it has created certain problems that shouldn’t be ignored. You would have noticed that fraudsters use the internet to scam people. They can do this by creating fake websites that can ensnare unsuspecting victims and steal from them. This is why you need to learn how to identify a legitimate website so that you can tell a genuine one from the fake one.

To avoid being scammed through a fake website, you will have to make out time to verify whether every website you visit. You shouldn’t be in a hurry to trust a website or get attracted by its offers. Always bear it at the back of your mind that a fraudster may be behind any website you visit. That way, you will apply caution each time you visited a website.

You can identify a legitimate website and differentiate it from a fake one by scrutinising it. Some of the questions you should attempt to answer each time you visit a website are extensively discussed below. Note that these are the basics but applying them will save you a lot. 

The first thing you should check whenever you visit a website is its address bar. There are so many reasons you should do this but let’s focus on four crucial points.

First of all, the address bar can tell you whether a site is secure or not. You can tell this in two different ways. The first is that if the site is secure, its URL must begin with “https://” and not “http://”. Take note of the missing “s” in the latter, which shows that the site isn’t locked. 

Secondly, you should check a padlock icon on the address bar. If it is there and locked, it shows that the site is locked. But, if it’s open or absent, it is telling you that the website is not secure. If a website is secure, it means that it will use encryption technology to protect your activities and information. But, if it is not secure, anything you do there will expose you to fraud.

Another thing you should check on the address bar of a website is the domain name. This is the special name the website has, which separates it from other sites. For instance, “website.com” is a domain name and it cannot be used by another website. So, when you’re looking for a particular website, you should be sure the domain name is correct. Note that “website.com” is different from “webbsite.com”. The latter domain name has an additional letter ‘b’, which separates it from the former. A scammer can create a fake website of a legit one by adding or removing letters from its domain name. You may not notice this difference if you don’t pay attention.

Finally, you must have noticed that the domain name of most websites ends with “.com”. This is a domain extension used by companies, groups, and individuals that engage in commercial activities. You may also notice other domain extensions, such as “.org” (usually used by nonprofit organisations) and “.net” (also used for commercial websites). Once a website uses any of these extensions, it will be its address. It cannot jump from one extension to another without creating a new website. So, if you’re looking for “website.com” and you find “website.net”, please, don’t entertain visiting the latter. It could be from scammers.

You may also need to know that when you see a website with a “.gov” (for government MDAs) or “.edu” (for accredited higher institutions) domain extension, it is legit. The owners of the website pass through rigorous screenings before they are registered with the extensions.

Website owners pay a lot of money to write content on their sites. They employ the services of professional content writers and editors to create whatever is published there. So, when you go through legit websites, you should expect to find content with good grammatical structure. The content must show good quality.

However, some fraudulent websites don’t pay to have standard content on their websites. This can explain why you may find a lot of grammatical errors and blunders on their websites. 

This is not to say that every website that features content with grammatical errors is a scam. This is also not to say that fraudulent websites do not publish content that has standard quality. However, if you find a lot of grammatical blunders or inferior-quality content on a website, it’s a red flag you shouldn’t ignore.

Websites can be owned by companies, organisations, government agencies, or private individuals. If the site is owned by a government agency, you can easily detect that because the agency will introduce itself on the site. You can find this information on the homepage, the “About Us” page, as well as the contact page of the website. Another way you can tell that the site belongs to a government agency is that its domain name will end with “.gov”. Of course, we have explained this above. 

But, what if the website you’re looking at doesn’t belong to a government MDA? What if the owner didn’t provide any information about himself on the website? What if you’re not sure that the information you found on the website is true?

Well, in all honesty, you should go beyond what is written on a website to find its true owner. A scammer can lie on his website, and no one will notice the lie without doing further research. This is why you should go outside a website to find its owner and verify if it is legitimate or not.

 Searching externally for the owner of a website is not that difficult. You can easily do this by using a domain tool known as Whois Lookup. This is a domain tracker that can give you all the information you needed about a particular website. With this tool, you can find the name of the registrant, his address, the date of registration, whether the domain is still active or not, and so on.

When you find the details of the owner of that site, you should go further to research him or her. Check out if there are other sister sites owned by the company and also the reputations of the sister sites. If the result of your research returns with a lot of question marks and unanswered questions, please avoid that website. But, if the owner of the site is an individual, an organisation, or an agency that you can trust, you should go ahead with whatever you wanted to do on the site.

A company that is registered by the government of a country can hardly defraud you. This is not a guarantee since some scammers establish legit companies to win the trust of the people. However, if the owner of a website happens to be a company that is duly registered in a country, you can be sure that it is being regulated. In addition, a registered company is a legal entity, which you can sue when it defaults. So, if the owner of a site claims to be a corporate organisation, you should find its registration information.

Since the internet has ensured easy access to information, it will be easy for you to find the registration details of a corporate organisation. The use of simple keywords in your internet search can help you to discover the country that registered the company. Fortunately, in most cases, you may not need to go far to find this information because a legit website that belongs to a corporate body always reveals its owner’s registration information. But if you don’t find it there, you should search outside the website.

Please, note that if you can’t find the company registration information of the corporate owner of the website, you should stay away from it. No reputable company hides its registration information. Any website that hides its owner’s registration details is shady and should be avoided. 

Of course, when you search for the owner of a website, using the Whois Lookup domain tracker, you are most likely going to find the physical address of the owner. But, let’s assume the website is owned by a company or an organisation, you will definitely need to know where its physical office is situated. You can do this by checking the website for its contact information on the “Contact Us” page. The “About Us” page is also a place to look for this information. Sometimes, it is found on the foot menu of the homepage.

If you discover the physical address of the company or organisation that owns a website, you should go further to make sure it is not a hoax. That is, you should do more research (this time, outside the website) to be sure the company is truly situated there. You can simply use keywords, such as “Where is a so-so company located?” and “Where is the Headquarters of the so-so company?” while searching for the information. The Google search engine can be used for this task. The results you find can tell you more about the website and its owner.

Another way you can detect whether a website is legit or not is by finding out how to reach the owner. The information may not give you much but it is worth considering. But you have to be tricky if you want to use it to catch a thief.

While checking out the customer support method given by a website, you should note if it gave several options or not. Most especially, you should find out if it will welcome a physical office visit. If it does, it is a sign that the website might be legit.

Secondly, if you find an email address, a telephone number, a live chat button, or a request form, you should try to reach the customer service team through it. The response you received can help you to decide what to do next. 

But, please, don’t base your conclusion on the customer service methods alone. You should also consider other factors mentioned here so you can be sure of what you’re doing.

You will need to do this verification if you want to confirm whether a website belongs to a particular company or if it is a copycat that was set up by a scammer. The reason for verifying the age of the website is that the legitimate owner of a website will not allow its copycat site to last. Apart from that, when people discover that a website is a scam, they will report it. So, a fake website does not operate for a long time.

You can use the domain track tool, Whois Lookup, to find the age of a site. Of course, when you search for the owner of the domain name through the tool, it will give you the year the site was launched. If this website has been operating for some years, you can relax and continue to conduct business with it. However, if it is fairly new, you should be cautious. This may not be a red flag, but there’s no harm in being careful.

The payment method a website adopted can give you information about its legitimacy. Usually, a reputable legit website adopts secured payment methods that can protect the buyer from scammers. For instance, you can find the use of credit and debit cards, e-vouchers and e-wallets, and direct bank transfers as payment options on legit websites. Nevertheless, even though these payment options give an assurance that the site is legit, you shouldn’t bank on them alone.

You should always remember that scammers are very smart. They always think ahead of their victims. So, they know you may not trust them if they ask you to fill out a suspicious form that may require that you provide your secret banking details. As a result, they use the same payment methods used by legit websites to receive money from their victims. In other words, you should continue your verification process even if the website adopts secure payment methods.

There’s no way you can identify a legitimate website without finding its reviews. It is easier to discover a fraudulent website when you find out the experiences of other people that have used it. This is why you should take customer reviews seriously.

When you want to find an honest review of a website, you should check reputable review platforms, such as Topreviewssite, Sitejabber, and Glassdoor. You can also use social media platforms (such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook/Meta, and LinkedIn) and online forums (such as Quora, Reddit, and Nairaland) to discover how legit a site is. If you’re a member of any of these platforms, you should create a post that asks questions about the site so that other users can tell you about their experiences there. Of course, you will know what to do after receiving this valuable information.

You may find it very easy to discover if a website is legit or not through its social media accounts. This is because, no matter how hard a scammer tries to conceal his fake website, you can see through that veil if you check its social media page. Here is how you can do this successfully.

First of all, you should go through the website to find links to its different social media accounts. These links appear as the logos of the social media platforms it has accounts with. When you click a logo, you will be directed to one of the website’s social media accounts. If you follow this link, you will be sure that the social media page you landed on is not the wrong one.

When you get to the social media page of any website, you should check its activities and the engagements its posts attracted. You have to be sure that the comments under each post did not come from machines (bots). You should check the social media accounts of those that engaged in the posts to be sure there is no form of manipulation or lies in their comments. 

If the social media page you were directed to after clicking the link is already “verified” (with a tick) by the platform, it means the website is legitimate. But, if it is not, you can do a little more search to know if there is another social media account that bears a similar name. If you find one, and it happens to be verified, you should know that the website is a fraud. 

If you do not find a link to the social media account of the website or you suspect that it does not have any, you should exit the site. One thing you should always bear in mind is that every company, organisation, agency, or individual that has a website has a strong social media presence. This is not to say that the absence of a social media account means that the site is a scam but that it is a red flag you should never ignore. The site owner is obviously something from the public.

Some sites have a lot of goodies to offer and that may make you wonder whether they are real or a scam. You may find a website that will offer you a lot of free gifts even though you haven’t had any transactions with it before. If you visit such a website, you need to tread around it with caution. Don’t be in a hurry to click any click-bait link that begs you to redeem an offer. It may be a virus that will infect your device and steal your data, including your banking information.

This is not to say that legit websites do not make offers to attract visitors. But they always have something to gain from that gift and they don’t hide those intentions. For instance, they may ask you to subscribe to their newsletters or buy a discounted course before earning cash or claiming a gift. You will always know what you have to exchange for the gift before you go for it. 

However, if you really want to collect that gift and you trusted the website enough to take a chance with it, please, use a device you don’t operate your banking transactions with for the process. You should also provide an alternate email address to the website in case it decides to spam your email. 

You must have discovered how to identify a legitimate website after going through this essay. The questions that you will ask and attempt to answer during this scrutiny will direct you towards discovering if the site has anything to hide from the public eye. With them, you can avoid being scammed by internet fraudsters that create fake websites to ensnare innocent internet users. Never forget to spare a few minutes to verify a website before trusting it. You will never regret that decision.

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