{"id":36297,"date":"2012-04-20T17:09:02","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T15:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=36297"},"modified":"2012-04-26T19:10:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T17:10:27","slug":"dont-get-scammed-while-shopping-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/36297-dont-get-scammed-while-shopping-online","title":{"rendered":"Don’t get scammed while shopping online"},"content":{"rendered":"

The internet has a reputation for playing host to con-artists and scam websites, so much so that even legitimate MyBroadband and MyGaming give-aways<\/a> raise the suspicions of the online community.<\/p>\n

Among these scammers are fake retail websites, which often have goods for sale at ridiculously low prices, tempting gamers looking to score a bargain on new hardware purchases.<\/p>\n

Landmark Computers<\/a> site owner Andrew van\u00a0der\u00a0Nest<\/a> shared some advice with MyGaming on how to spot scam sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo all links work? Do they have a landline number? Are the prices too good to be true?\u201d These are some of the questions van\u00a0der\u00a0Nest recommends you ask yourself before making a purchase on an online retail site. Most scam websites will have loads of broken links and usually just a cell number with a Gmail or other free account e-mail address,\u201d said van der Nest.<\/p>\n

Local scam websites are even easier to spot, thanks to online services such as HelloPeter and PriceCheck.<\/p>\n

HelloPeter is a site where customers can report their experiences with a variety of companies, including online retailers. A large amount of negative feedback on HelloPeter could serve as an indication that the retail site may be a scam.<\/p>\n

PriceCheck is an online price aggregator which allows users to compare prices of various goods at a range of local online retailers. A site not included in PriceCheck results may not necessarily be a scam site, but the chances of it being legitimate if it is included in the results is far higher.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso look out for their VAT and registration numbers,\u201d concluded van\u00a0der\u00a0Nest.<\/p>\n

International sites are also easy to spot, with bad grammar and poor site design being two obvious signs that the site is a scam.<\/p>\n

In the image of a scam website below, note the poor grammar and unprofessional looking text in the centre block. Links to images hosted on photobucket are also broken, and the site makes use of a free hotmail e-mail account for correspondence.<\/p>\n

\"Scam<\/a>

Scam website example<\/p><\/div>\n

Hunting for the cheapest price online is always a good idea, but take care not to get scammed by a fake store. Bearing the above in mind, you should be able to avoid scam websites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landmark Computers owner Andy van der Nest sheds some light on how to identify scam online retail sites<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":36302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[3616,2701,21,3617,1983,3618,3619],"class_list":["post-36297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-andy-van-der-nest","tag-gmail","tag-headline","tag-hellopeter","tag-landmark-pc","tag-priicecheck","tag-vat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36398,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36297\/revisions\/36398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}