This is 2020, due to the effects of COVID-19 or some other reasons, most of us now do most of our shopping online. Since more people are now embracing online shopping in Nigeria, we all must learn ways we can avoid getting scammed while shopping online.
It’s quite frustrating and painful to lose your hard-earned money to this scammers. The terrible part of it is that these scammers are getting smarter every day and using sophisticated technologies to manoeuvre their way into people’s minds and bank accounts.
This is why we at Greathomemaking have taken it upon ourselves to help you live smarter by educating you on 6 ways to avoid getting scammed while shopping online.
Prioritize Shopping on Verified/Trusted E-commerce Stores
Try as much as possible to shop on e-commerce stores that popular, tested and trusted. When searching for products or goods online, always consider domain authority. Good verified websites will always appear on the first page on google search.
Make sure the website you are shopping on has a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. You can know this when you see a padlock in the address bar of your browser and the first letters of the address should have “Https”. That’s one way to know a secured website.
Check the Identity of the Seller
Some people especially small scale businesses sell or resell their goods individually on social media. They usually create an account or pages on social media where people engage them and purchase their products.
In as much as we encourage people to patronize internet marketers to enable them to grow, it’s good to always look out for scammers using this medium to defraud people of their money or information. One good way of knowing genuine businesses is the reviews from their followership on social media. Genuine Internet marketers usually have a large or moderate number of followers on social media. Another way is that they display some of the goods or products they sell alongside themselves in a picture or video format.
Some of these scammers go-ahead to clone these popular social media account/pages with same pictures and format but the follower-ship are usually small in number and use it to defraud people So before sending money to people online make sure you verify their authenticity by looking out for all these red flags if possible call the seller on video call before parting with your money or information.
Pay with a Secure Means of Payment
Always insist on paying with a well-secured payment gateway. Only use your debit card on sites that have a credible payment gateway. Most genuine websites integrate credible online payment platforms like Paystack, Flutterwave, Interswitch e.t.c. to facilitate payment on their website.
Avoid paying upfront on websites or businesses you don’t trust. If you must do a bank transfer, verify that the name of the bank account matches with the seller. Also, be careful about sellers asking for cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment.
Always Check Reviews
Reviews both online and offline are another way to check the credibility of an e-commerce store or an online marketer. Before you do any transaction with anyone, type in the company/person’s name in google search and read about them. There is a likelihood someone has talked about them online.
You can also do offline reviews by asking friends and family to do a background check if you are not too sure of who you are dealing with.
Don’t buy if its too Good to be True
Don’t get greedy, there’s no free lunch in life. If the product is way below the actual market price, there are chances that it’s a scam or of low quality. If you see a G-wagon being sold for 1 million Naira on Jiji. There is a likelihood you might get scammed of your money or you might get only the tires delivered to you. Always insist on value for money.
Read Privacy Policy/Terms and Conditions
Always read the privacy policy and terms and conditions of any website you wish to shop from. There you can see information bothering on pricing, shipping, return policy, hidden charges and the rest. Never ignore this whenever you are shopping online.
In conclusion, it’s essential to be on the alert whenever you’re shopping online. Be on the lookout for anything that doesn’t seem right and if your guts don’t feel right about it, then it’s probably good to keep your money and look elsewhere.
Did we miss anything? Tell us in the comment section so people can avoid getting scammed while shopping online
