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Not long ago, the market only consisted of brick-and-mortar stores and malls. However, due to the more accessible Internet and computers, shopping became possible digitally.
While large shopping sites rake in most sales, social media pages also take a significant percentage. Though, since it’s still on the web, nothing can expect total safety. Luckily, this article can help. In the succeeding sections, we’d listed tips on how to protect your money when buying from social media sites.
1. Only shop from high-rank pages
On social media sites, the staggering number of accounts and pages makes shopping challenging. As many stores offer similar products, it can be hard to decide where to go. Luckily, sites like Facebook ranks pages based on popularity and user-interaction counts.
Given how users trust these accounts, one can assume that their services are legit and safer than others. When shopping, it’s best to look for pages with the most followers and likes. Besides, most platforms place tags like customer comments, checkmarks, or other symbols to indicate a verified account. By doing so, not only you’ll get better products, but also, you’ll have reliable transactions.
2. Read shop reviews
Checking user reviews is another way to verify a shop’s legitimacy. Before purchasing anything, it’s best to view previous customers’ assessments.
On Facebook, there is a dedicated section for user ratings and reviews. By opening it, you can know how good, punctual, or authentic the shop is.
However, knowing this, owners use fake reviews to boost their profile. To avoid falling for this tactic, you can use the following ways:
- Check the comment author’s profile and see if it has real friends and interactions.
- Contact a comment author to verify if the review is genuine or not.
3. Review shop owner’s contact and profile
See if there is a posted contact number or email in a shop’s profile. If there’s none, there’s a good chance that it’s not a secure account. However, if you can find one, you can use it to view the owner’s profile.
Using Spokeo’s reverse phone lookup and email search, you can discover the owner’s other social media profiles. Additionally, it’s possible to view past criminal records should online visibility isn’t enough.
4. Limit what you pay
If you’re unsure of a shop’s legitimacy, you can take some precautions to avoid losing money. First, you can limit how much you pay.
If an owner asks for upfront fees, you need to assess if the product or service you’re purchasing needs that assurance. In other words, if it’s a reservation basis, it might be true, though, when it’s delivery type, down payments aren’t that necessary.
Regardless, if the shop insists, you can ask only to pay a small amount or don’t pay at all. Lastly, you can ask for a call or use a reverse number lookup tool like Spokeo to perform a phone number search and keep the owner’s identity accountable if anything goes wrong.
5. Don’t fall for scam services
Apart from goods, many individuals also sell services online. While most services are for sourcing work and tasks, one can find things for unconventional purposes.
Regarding this topic, the most prevalent one would be paying money in exchange for more subscribers, followers, and post likes. Some sites don’t prohibit this activity; however, transacting with such shops is highly unsafe.
When buying subscribers, there’s a chance that shops would ask for your account details or credentials. Not only could you lose your account, but also, hackers can steal other things like money, identity, and many more.
6. Don’t disclose sensitive information
If you buy something online, trusted merchants online need your name, contact, and address.
When considering this approach, there’s no reason for social media shops to asks for more information.
Suppose a shop asks for your account email, password, or other sensitive data, then it’s likely a scam. Please remember, since even social media staff don’t do this, then sellers shouldn’t also.
Staying safe and protecting your money online can be challenging at first. However, with enough practice, observation, and following security tips like the above, you can stay away from scams and online criminals. If you’ve learned something, please feel free to share this article. Good luck!
About Author:
Maguire Haigh is a marketing manager for Spokeo. He is interested in the latest technology trends, marketing strategies and business development. He also prefers travelling, exploring the world and meeting new people. Maguire has great experience in creating and editing articles on different topics.
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