The Dangers of Online Crime

The Internet is full of sites that sell counterfeit products as orginals, all depriving the copyright holder of their entitlement:-

Branded Clothing

DVD's/Videos

Music CD's

Watches

Phone Accessories

MP3 Players

These may all look like the original, but when you receive the product you soon find the quality is inferior and you have no come back with the manufacturer because they are fake products.

Similarily there are websites which offer goods which when orders are placed, they accept your funds but never ship the goods, or worse use your credit card information to steal money from your account. The general rule is don't buy from a company that doesn't have a physical entity that you can identify i.e. an Address and Telephone Number that you can contact.

The Solution

The only real protection from Internet Crime is to be aware and careful. Only buy from reputable sources preferably companies which have a physical entity i.e. Name and Address rather than just a virtual entity i.e. Email Address and Domain Name.

If in doubt it may be worth going to www.google.co.uk and seeing if anyone has any feedback on the company that you are thinking of buying from, by typing the company name into the search field.

More information about buying safely online is available on the TrustUK website