I recently was contacted by a prospective client who wanted work done on his existing website. He sent me the URL of his website to review. Like many of you who judge whether a company is trustworthy before you decide to do business with them, I do the same thing to decide whether a potential customer is running a valid business. The last thing I want to do is work on a website for a company that might be a scam.

Here’s what I look for and what I found:

1. Professional – the website was professionally designed

2. Content – the content was well written

3. Company Info – I was unable to quickly find any information that gave me details about the company. Namely I look for a phone number, a mailing address, an email based on the website domain – none of this was available.

4. Person Responsible – I was unable to find out WHO is running this company – there was no name of anyone affiliated with the company anywhere.

5. Red Flags – I found that on the company’s main contact page, they were collecting all kinds of personal information, including social security numbers and net worth details. This page was not secure, meaning that it didn’s have “https” and that this information was being sent unencrypted. It seems incredible to me that people would be asked to submit this kind of very personal information to a website that had no easy way to identify who the information was being sent to. Really scary stuff here.

Due to my workload I declined the project, and gave this same feedback to the website owner.

If you’re considering doing business with someone and the only information you have to evaluate them is their website, it’s important you review that website in detail. Look for generic sounding “About Us” pages that really give you no concrete or verifiable information about the company. Look for missing phone numbers, missing address info, missing or generic (free) email accounts. Try to find the name of a real person associated with the business. Lastly, look for any red flags that might suggest less than good intentions, like collecting very personal information (credit card info, social security info) that’s being send over unencrypted (http not https) connection. While all of these issues can certainly be present on a completely reputable and valid business website, they are also markers of a business that can easily disappear without a trace. Be careful out there!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 8:58 am and is filed under the Spam & Scam Watch category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design.