Checking credibility of a site

Better Business Bureau is a good start:

http://www.bbb.org/

Do all companies have to register with the BBB? Or is it optional?

I don't think it's really a registration thing. I think (but am not sure) that the BBB allows you to see complaints about a given company, and how they were responded to. If there are no complaints, it might be on the up-and-up or it might just be that nobody has complained yet. So it's not definite. But if there ARE complaints, you know to stay away.

I just checked out a site I used recently that was a little iffy (didn't accept my cancellation), they were listed but had a good rating. (I still don't know how that will turn out, maybe the item I got despite my cancellation will be free, which would be fine!)

Anyway, that's why I said BBB is a good start, you can usually get info there but not always, and then you can go from there if you don't.

There are some things like Verisign that seem to indicate trustworthiness.

Re: Checking credibility of a site

This may sound like a stupid answer, but have you Googled it? If they're scamsters, some people on the web should have complained about it. Another thing you could check is if they sell through Ebay; if they do, their Ebay rating should tell you something about them.


It's optional. If a business has registered, I'd say it's evidence but not proof of trustworthiness. If the business has been around for some time but hasn't had many complaints, that's also a good sign.

Finally, one dead giveaway of charlatan websites is when they expect their customers to send confidential information over an unencrypted connection. So make sure the URL of the page where you enter your data starts with "https://" (note the s). If it starts with "http://" instead, hold on to your sensitive information and run.

And then, of course, there's all the things Sozobe told you. They're good advice.

Can you give us more information Shewolf?

Is this website selling someting? Do they want your Credit Card number? Or is it some other type of site.