In many years of web browsing and designing web sites for others, I’ve come to the conclusion that you have a 50-50 chance of knowing if the site you’re visiting is a scam or not.

scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation

Here are ten ways to tell that you’re visiting a scam site.

NOTE: If your current website is guilty of any of these, consider making some edits so you don’t scare away your legitimate customers.

10) A Preponderance of Capitalized Words.
Notice if the Website Refers to Itself with many Capitalized Words, as if to tell the World of its own Importance.

If the site has a plethora of capitalized words, it is possibly a scam site (or it’s at least tongue-in-cheek). These capitalized words may Refer to Legalese terms (Intellectual Property or Copyright or Bank Draft or Important Notice), where the terms are Sprinkled throughout the text.

The above ruling doesn’t refer to headings or sub-headings, which are fine capitalized, but if the Capitalized Words show in Every Section, and there are Numerous Exhortations to Sign Up Now for an Extremely Confidential and Important Notice, you may want to Click Away.

9) Five million links.
A typical spam comment that my spamcatcher demolishes has more than twenty links in it. I don’t see the point of anyone trying to embed more than ten links into their text.

If you see a multitude of links showing on the page (and the page is NOT a directory of links), you’re probably visiting a scam site.

As a bonus, if you see a number of links that go to anything remotely like the spam you get in your e-mail box, you probably don’t want to share any of your personal information, e-mail, contact info or much less your credit card information, unless you want more of those spam e-mails in your e-mail box. Just my two cents.

8) A feeling that the site is “too” polished.
This is a fine line to tread, but in my experience, there are a number of scam sites that feel almost “too” high tech or “too” clean. Website graphic design templates are available for purchase, so a dedicated scammer may set up a professional-looking site, make some quick edits using a template and text changes, use a free hosting service, and -boom- they’re in business.

Make sure that you do a search on any site where you’re considering shopping online, to make sure that others have posted only positive comments.

7) Extreme pictures of happy, tan people with luxury boats and cars.
(this is a real picture of me at the shore near my house)

This is also a fine line, but typically with scam sites that require you to fork over cash, the website text will have many pictures of beautiful people on the beach, on a jungle adventure, driving or standing next to their luxury automobile, in a helicopter, or next to their yacht.

I advocate that if the site is selling luxury automobile services, or helicopter rides, fractional jet shares, or yachts, then you will know. However, if the site is selling you on the idea that you could live that lifestyle for just a few dollars (or more), you might want to put on your thinking cap and decide if this is really a legitimate business opportunity.

When you look at regular bank sites, they do not show this kind of lifestyle: they typically show regular people doing regular things (remodeling their apartment, studying for college, setting up files for their business). Private banks, hedge funds, angel investor networks, and other websites catering to accredited investors show very understated pictures.

A legitimate site will probably downplay any fabulous displays of wealth, while a site that wants to separate you from your money –quickly– will probably go overboard with pictures of luxury items.

Caveat emptor.

6) Too many dots in the browser address.
Check the link that you’re visiting. If the site is a sub-sub-domain of an existing site, such as www.domain.next.myru.com or www.bankofamerica.mybank.com, you have a high probability of visiting a scammer site.

If you’re visiting a retailer or more importantly, a financial services site, navigate directly to the site in a browser, never click from a link in an e-mail.

This is a difficult item to “suss out” because some legitimate sites will have subdomains, such as www.paypal.com/holidays. However, it’s the letters right towards the end that make the difference. myholidays.paypal.mywebsite.com is not legitimate, but myholidays.paypal.com would be legitimate.

Be careful when you are visiting websites with many dots in the address line.

5) Numbers in the address bar.
If you only see numbers in the address bar, these are the DNS numbers (like “http://167.101.331.253″, either the site is not yet live or it is a fake, scam-based site. Click away!

Your legitimate site will have something like “www.website.com” in the address bar, and if you’re on a secure site transacting with your personal banking or credit card information, it will have a “https://” as the prefix and a little key in the bottom of some browsers.

4) Lots of Exclamation Points!!!
Buy now!!! Today only! This week only! Discount Now!!!
If you see lots of exclamation points, run away!!! There is no need for a legitimate site to engage in exclamation point madness!!!

If there are too many of these sprinkled throughout the website text, you might want to take your business elsewhere!!!

Buy Now!!!

3) Misspelled words, Poor Grammar, Weird Punctuation
If you’re visiting a blog, I would pay less attention to misspelled words, as they typically get through most frequent blogger’s posts (including my own). You may just wince and continue reading. If you’re on a British English site, you will see common variations on spelling. However, if you’re on a scam site, you’ll see outright misspelled words, totally incorrect grammar, and strange punctuation (including inappropriately placed commas).

If you’re visiting a commercial, retail, or catalog site that requires you to give away your credit card number, PIN, bank account, or social security number, beware of anything that doesn’t “sound” right. Here are some real examples:

MISSPELLED: “We strongly advice you to…”

COMMA in WRONG PLACE: “We apologise, for the delay of your contract part payment…”

GRAMMATICAL ERROR: “will be deliver to your door step as soon as you…”

I realize that being able to identify these errors means you will have to know correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. My best advice to you: when in doubt, check it out.

2) Personal Financial information is required
Be hyper-vigilant if you see a request for you to enter any of the following: bank account number, credit card number, social security number, date of birth, PIN, old password or current password.

Your provider already has this information. They do not need to ask you for it again.

If this is an e-Bay auction, Amazon, PayPal, or some other financial site, I would close out your window, open a new browser window and type that website’s homepage directly into the address bar.

Protect yourself from identity theft (or worse!) by keeping your information private. If you are buying online, be very careful about sharing your personal financial information or other identifying information.

1) No phone number.
If there is no phone number listed, such as a Customer Service or Technical Support number, you may be dealing with a scam site. Some people are more comfortable talking on the phone: if this refers to you, simply call the listed phone number to place your order or set up your account. Speaking in person or leaving a message and receiving a call-back helps you make sure this is a legitimate website.

If there is no phone number listed, this may or may not be a legitimate site: some businesses only transact online, so they require a contact form and e-mail. However, most businesses will at least leave a toll-free or local phone number posted in their “Contact” section.

If you can’t find this phone number, the website owner probably doesn’t want you to get in touch with them. I wonder why!

Follow the above steps to double-check if you’re visiting a legitimate, scam-free site. If you have any doubts at all, do a “gut-check” (and a Google search) before you share any personal information.

Is it too good to be true? It might be, but if you have any doubt at all, consider doing some checking on the site owner. You might have actually found a legitimate enterprise, and if so, congratulations. However, there are as many ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes on the web as there are in print and other media. Just be careful and think twice before engaging in anything remotely sketchy.

Happy Shopping!

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