research : do you do enough before paying out?

[joko]

this site is full of posts from people who have been scammed, and have lost money...

however often after a single google search, pages and pages of stuff comes up about the company and the scam, that would have anyone run a mile had they seen it.

do you routinely investigate before paying up for stuff?

i make it a habit to do a bit of checking before buying anything, such as companies on ebay that have proper sites too.

it only takes a few minutes to type the name of the company next to the word scam and see what happens

do you check?

[bednobs]

TBH i tend to buy either in shops or the websites of shops(sainsbury's, evans, florence and fred, john lewis), or for example amazon so don't really feel i need do research on them

[hc4361]

I always check. I won't buy if the physical address or proper telephone number is not on the website.
I don't buy if their terms are not within the various consumer laws.

I have on once telelphoned the Trading Standards people before placing a high value order to see if they'd received complaints.

I haven't lost out yet, and I've been buying online from large high street stores and individuals for years.

[emmie]

I haven't, but confess i have only been caught out by so called legit traders who i got out of yellow pages. The few things i have bought online has been fine.

[boxtops]

The scam things of which I'm aware tend to come by email, or from people who approach you personally and turn out not to be who they say they are. I would be very careful buying off any website which I didn't know.

[DTCwordfan]

agree with hc and boxtops.....and I dont do facebook either.....why leave your details hanging out there?

Still get the Nigerian, Burkina, Senegal attempted scams though. I wonder if it would be possible to write some software to suck the readies out of their accounts, especially if $ related.

[emmie]

DT, sure someone could come up with a programme to do that, i would like to see their faces when they are paid back for the misery they cause.

[Andyvon]

DT - My brother used to work in commercial Internet security. Not only did they recover data but they wrote programmes that were able to trace the sources of viruses and worms. My brother said they would then send a programme to that particular computer which would destroy it's hard drive. He said it was illegal but who would complain? The same could be done for these scammers but it would cost so much money and time it wouldn't be worth it.

[DTCwordfan]

thanks andyvon - could it be worth it for the major banks/building socs who get "slandered" and also on behalf of their customers......?

[Buenchico]

The AB posts which make me want to bang my head against the nearest wall are the ones which read "I've just booked a holiday to the Fawlty Towers Hotel in Torquay but then I've seen the reviews on Trip Advisor. Can anyone advise me?"

I want to shout "Yes, of course I can advise you. Read the reviews first, you idiot!"

[bednobs]

but you always seem so polite chris