Internet scams and card hacking are very present on the web. Fake or unsecured sites are numerous and it is essential to remain vigilant when shopping online. We take a look at what you need to do to ensure that an e-Commerce site is reliable. Here are 8 steps that will allow you to make more secure purchases.
1 - Reputation of the website
1.1 - Simply via an internet search
If you have any doubts about the reliability of a site, it is important to check the identity of the company running it. To do this, the DGHCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes) recommends searching the internet for the name of the company by adding words such as "scam", "fraud", "reliability". This is a simple, free and quick way to check whether the site is associated with malicious practices.
1.2 - With an online reliability tool
For further analysis, you can also use a tool to evaluate the reliability of the site. Some tools, such as ScamDoc, assess the level of trust that can be placed in a website. The tool is based on several criteria of relevance such as the presence of an HTTPS protocol, the traffic of the site, the age of its domain name, its ranking on certain sites, the reliability of the email addresses present on the site, etc. ScamDoc uses advanced artificial intelligence to obtain these results.
2 - Domain name of the site
Before diving into the next steps, it is important to make sure you are on the right website. Scams are numerous and fake sites are nowadays extremely well designed. You should not rely so much on the appearance of the website because, like a fake account on a social network, a website is easily reproducible.
One of the things that will help you make sure that you are on the right site is the domain name. It is in fact the basis of your URL. For example, the domain name of the igidop site is digidop.fr . Other domain names like digidop.ru, info.digidop.eu, digidop-france.fr may belong to different companies or malicious people. Going to a different domain name is like going to your neighbor's house and thinking you are going home.
To ensure the authenticity of the site you can also use tools like Who.is. Once you have entered the URL, the tool provides you with a lot of information such as the IP address, the owner, the address, the contact details, etc.
3 - Legal notice and privacy policy
3.1 Legal notice
Every website must display certain information mandatory information relating to the owner of the site, the publisher, the company, the address, etc. The legal notices act as a passport for a website, which can be consulted by each visitor or user of the solution. These legal notices will therefore allow you to verify the authenticity of the company that owns the website, and therefore to ensure its reliability.
3.2 Privacy Policy
If it is not included in the legal notice, a site's privacy policy is also mandatory. It groups together all the measures put in place by the site with regard to the protection of personal data. A reliable website should therefore have a complete privacy policy that meets the new RGPD standards. Check this privacy policy to ensure that the site is effectively protecting your personal data.
4 - GTC
The General Terms and Conditions of Sale or GTCs must appear on every merchant site. Whether it is a sale of tangible or intangible goods, or services, a reliable e-commerce platform must make its GTCs available to you at the click of a button. They are also accessible before the validation of each purchase.
These terms and conditions are the contract for each of your purchases and it is important to read them, for example, to know the terms of payment, the refund policy, the return policy, the product guarantees, the delivery terms, the availability of products and spare parts, the additional services, etc.
5 - Site and payment security
6.1 Legal principle
According to the DGCCRF, "consent is characterised by a double click". Be careful at the time of payment, as the seller is obliged to proceed in two stages:
- Click 1: check the order, the price and the products or services included and accept the T&Cs and legal notice.
- Click 2: confirm the order and proceed to payment.
6.2 Technical safety
It is essential that the site is secure. Different security protocols exist, but check that the site contains at least HTTPS security. This means adding an "S" to the URL.
✅ Secure site: https://
⛔ Unsecured site: http://
This may also be reflected in a closed padlock to the left of your URL.
In addition to HTTPS, it is important that your site
💡CNIL advises against saving bank details on web browsers
6.3 Using a third party for payment
If in doubt, we recommend that you use a trusted third party to pay for your purchase. E-commerce platforms and no-code tools have democratised virtual wallets. The advantage is that you can pay for purchases without having to give your bank details. If the website offers you to pay with tools such as Paypal, ApplePay, Paylib, Google Wallet or Stripe, the payment will be much safer, as these tools meet very high security standards.
6.4 Do not rely on payment icons
Beware of payment icons that make you believe that the site is secure! Pictures of padlocks, "secure payment" messages on the site, Paypal or Visa icons, etc. are in no way a guarantee of reliability. Anyone can add this type of image or message without making their site secure. Only the indicators seen above should alert you.
6 - Product characteristics
Unlike a physical shop, on an e-commerce platform it is not possible to touch a product before buying it. We therefore advise you to look carefully at the product sheet and its technical characteristics. This is above all a way of ensuring that you are buying the right product, as the images on the product page are sometimes at odds with what you receive. In addition, inconsistencies may alert you to the reliability of the product.
⚠️Don't just rely on the product picture
7 - Don't trust all customer reviews
7.1 Between true and false opinions
The most common mistake consumers make is to rely too often on customer reviews. Let's be clear about customer reviews on websites by distinguishing between three types of reviews:
- Reviews posted by the site: the authenticity of these reviews is very difficult to verify as it is the company itself that selects the content it publishes.
- User reviews : somewhat more reliable if the site has user reviews. This results in a login for each user and therefore unique profiles.
- Review platforms: more reliable depending on the platform. Some platforms such as Google or TrustPillot have very powerful algorithms capable of analysing and removing false reviews.
In general, be aware that there are many practices of false reviews and buying reviews, so this is not a key criterion for the reliability of a website.
7.2 Legal principle
In France, Article L. 111-7-2 of the Consumer Code sets out certain conditions to be met with regard to reviews on an Internet site. In particular, sites must inform consumers of "theexistence of a review procedure and its main characteristics, the date of publication of the review and the consumer experience, the review ranking criteria and the reasons for refusing to publish a review.
In addition to this law, there is a French standard, NF Z74-501, which aims to regulate the collection, moderation and return of consumer opinions.
8 - Check the presence of the site on social networks
The last step is to check the website's presence on the internet in general. For example, you can check if the site is present on social networks, if it has a Google My Business page, or if other sites talk about it.
