How can you tell if a website is dodgy?

chudleyette

I really want to buy an Abercrombie & Fitch jacket and am having real problems finding a UK stockist (and the one I want isn't currently available on the US site). I have found it here: http://www.anf-mall.com but something doesn't feel right...

Can anyone tell me how to check if a website is likely to be dodgy? Or just tell me where I can buy A&F in the UK!?

Many thanks in advance.

bossymommy

Have a look here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2105605
hth

DCFC79

It looks ok to me but theres no phone number listed in the contact us section, according to here its run by a firm in china unless ive made a boo boo, bossymommy covered it

blue_monkey_2

Number 1 rule! Never, never, never buy anything from any website that does not have a contact telehone number or address. Otherwise how do you find where your money has gone!! A reputable site will have no problem in letting you know where they are.

blue_monkey_2

And did you read the returns policy? Shocking!!!!



http://www.anf-mall.com/shipping-and-return.html

pastizzi

wow i am not only new to this site but this is my 1st ever computer too i have shopped online once and didnt realise how wrong it could all go this has certainly opened my eyes really glad this question came up!

chudleyette

Thanks everyone, will make a note of that whois.net site - really useful.

benrymnd

go to google and search for wot download it and whenever you go into a searched site it gives a feed back if the site is dangerious,the info is gathered from other people who have visited these sites

Coopdivi

That site's Chinese so avoid it.

A few useful tools:

Do a Whois look up. This will give you an idea of where the site is based.

http://whois.domaintools.com/

Get Web of Trust for your browser. This will give a colour coded rating for each website visited as well as all search engine listings. New, rip-off,Chinese based websites tend not to have received a rating from WOT which should always ring alarm bells. WOT is very good at rating sites for customer experience.

http://www.mywot.com/

Get McAfee Site Advisor for your browser. This works in a similar way to WOT but tends to rate sites based on possible security threats to your computer

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

In addition, as other members have pointed out, if there is no British geographical phone number listed and a British address listed then avoid. They've got something to hide.Things like listing the prices in GB Pounds (presumably in case you mix them up with Egyptian ones}and a poor standard of English are also good pointers.