by Jennifer Marsh

Created on: January 10, 2011   Last Updated: January 12, 2011

Business scam problems have lead to identity theft and personal loss for millions of people. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has estimated that nine million people each year experience identity theft. Identity theft costs financial companies billions of dollars each year. If you have ever received an email offer from a company that you do not know, and the offer seems too good to be true, here are some tips to find out if the business is a scam.

Do a Search in Google

The first way to check an online company is through a Google search. Google is the leading search engine, but you can also do a search using Yahoo and Bing, but these search engines are more easily manipulated. A Google search should provide you with several results. If a person has been scammed by the company, a complaint is typically shown in the search results. Read people’s reviews. Don’t just read the good reviews. Read the bad ones as well. Companies can pay for good reviews, so reading the bad revies gives you a good idea about the company’s ethics.

Ask a Local IT Expert

Ask around if you are unsure of a company’s ethics. If you are a part of online forums, ask the forum members if they have ever heard of the company. Forums are a great way to enquire about any company or the company’s ethics. Typically, people will post honest opinions about the company, if they have experience with any purchases. Check the post count of the person replying. If they have a large amount of posts, it means it is not spam or an attempt to manipulate your request.

Ignore Spam or Unusual Search Results

Companies hire personal relations (PR) representatives to boost the company’s reputations in the search engine results pages. Identify any paid posts or reviews. Make sure you read several sites and check forums for any negative reviews. Companies pay people to post positive reviews. Websites such as Amazon are a popular place to pay people to post positive reviews. Take any of these places with a grain of salt. If you find a company that has several positive reviews in Amazon, but the company has many negative comments on other sites, the company may have paid someone for positive results on the high-traffic site.

It is difficult to pinpoint a scam company, but a quick search on Google can help you find scams as opposed to a legitimate website. Do your research before you send any company your debit card or credit card number. With a little research, you can identify a scam website and a legitimate e-commerce website. 

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