The easiest way by far to see if a site is legitimate is to check the prices. If you see prices around 50-70% of retail, on new, brand name electronics, this is pretty much a guarantee that it’s a scam. When you’re dealing with cell phones, laptops and similar, the margins between wholesale and retail are not nearly that large, no legitimate company could possibly sell at such prices. Please feel free to confirm this with real people and companies who work in this market. Once again, if it looks too good to be true, it’s probably just another scam.

And of course, do a Google search on the company name and contact details. All companies of any size will have complaints posted on the internet, but scam sites will often have nothing but complaints and also be blacklisted on various anti-scam sites and forums despite being relatively new. Because of this, scammers set up new sites all the time.

Some other common red flags could be:
Scammers will often claim to be a “leading exporter”, “one of the largest companies” etc… Major companies exporting all kinds of brand names will have a significant internet presence. If you do a Google search and all you find is their own ads, you should be very suspicious.
Scammers often impersonate real companies. If you can find the real company’s website you will find the email addresses or phone numbers are different than the ones you have been using. This is especially common with UK companies, but happens everywhere. Here for example is a press release from a South African telecom who had their name used in one of these common scams.
Major companies will normally not use free email addresses or free websites, and will have their own domains.
Free websites or domains are very commonly abused by scammers, examples include cc.cc, page.tl, yolasite.com and officelive.com. If they claim to be a major company and use one of these domains, it’s not likely legitimate.
WHOIS information can tell you when a domain was registered. You can easily get WHOIS information for most domains from a site like domaintools.com for example. If it was registered very recently, you should be cautious. Scam sites will often say “Copyright 2006-2010″ at the bottom to make you believe that they’ve been around for a while, the WHOIS details often say differently.
Scammer sites typically do not remain online for very long, and domains registered by scammers are almost always registered for one year, the shortest time possible. Legitimate companies usually register their domains for much longer.
Scammers often use services to anonymize their WHOIS details, real companies with actual offices would have no legitimate reason to do this. Sole traders who operate out of their homes can have legitimate reasons to anonymize their WHOIS details though.


Western Union and MoneyGram are the favorite payment methods of internet scammers, because they can be used anonymously. Using a fake ID and/or a bribe, or by knowing the MTCN which is not normally required to pick up a payment, the money can be picked up sometimes even in a different country than it was sent to. WU and MG are only intended to send money to people you know intimately, not to pay strangers over the internet. MoneyGram was recently forced to pay 18 million for its lack of consumer protection. I don’t know if or how WU is better, but I do know they often warn people when sending money that there is a high risk of fraud. If a company insist on only WU or MG for payment, this is a guarantee that you will be scammed.
Bank accounts are sometimes used by scammers to receive payments. Real companies will have accounts in their company name, but with scammers the account will almost always be in the name of an individual. This should be a large red flag.


PayPal only offers some protection outside of eBay, you can file a dispute with them and if they judge in your favor and can recover the money from the scammer, you will get it back. A lot of people have the impression that PayPal offers complete protection from fraud, and that if a company uses it this is a guarantee they are legitimate. This is not true, read their fine print for details. Many scammers do use it, and with those it will often not be possible to recover anything.

If you want to ask whether a site is a scam, the forums at FraudWatchers is one place to get a second opinion. If you are looking for legitimate companies to sell stuff on eBay or similar, The Wholesale Forums may be more useful, but most internet traders naturally have no interest in giving out their suppliers to potential competitors.

One easy way to avoid many scams is the Web of Trust plugin, this will warn you of many shady websites including most of the scams listed on this blog. I can warmly recommend it.

If you would like details on why any specific site is listed as a scam on this blog, please make a comment on that specific post. You can do so anonymously.

More Information

The Federal Trade Commission on money transfer services such as Western Union and MoneyGram.