How to check if a website is legit in ten minutes
Most bad websites are not sophisticated. They are hurried. They copy a template, buy a domain, run ads for a few months and disappear before the chargebacks arrive. That leaves traces you can find without any special tools, usually in about ten minutes.
Start with the domain
Type the address yourself rather than following a link from an email or an ad. Look at the exact spelling: lookalike domains swap a letter or add a word, and the fake is often better designed than the original. A brand new domain is not proof of anything, but a shop that claims fifteen years in business on a domain registered in March is telling you something.
Find out who is behind it
A real business is reachable. Look for a physical address, a company number, a phone line and an email on a domain that matches the site, not a free mailbox. A contact page whose only element is a web form is a warning, and so is an About page written entirely in the passive voice with no names in it.
Read the policies, briefly
You do not need to read the terms in full. Check three things: how a refund works, how a subscription is cancelled, and which country's law applies. If the refund section is vague, or cancellation requires an email to a support address that appears nowhere else, price that risk in before you pay.
Look at the payment step
Check that the checkout is served over HTTPS and that a recognisable processor handles the payment. Requests to pay by bank transfer, gift card or cryptocurrency for an ordinary consumer purchase are the clearest signal in this entire list, because those payments cannot be reversed. That is exactly why they are asked for.
Then read the reviews properly
Reviews are the most useful and the most manipulated source you have. The next article covers how to read them, but the short version: ignore the average, read the one-star and three-star reviews, and see whether the complaints describe the same specific failure.
If the service is in our catalogue, its page collects the facts in one place, and any reviews it has sit underneath. Search by name or domain to see whether anyone has written about it yet.
The quick version
- Type the domain yourself and check the spelling character by character.
- Find a real address, a real company name and an email on the same domain.
- Read the refund and cancellation clauses before paying.
- Refuse any purchase that requires an irreversible payment method.
- Read the negative reviews and look for repeated, specific complaints.