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If you've received fake or misleading reviews about your business, there are some steps you can take to remove the incorrect review and help prevent it from happening again. 1. Correct the record
2. Request to remove If posts continue, you can request the removal of the post by providing evidence to the platform that the posts are fake and misleading and breach their polices.
3. Report the breach If you have approached a platform and they haven’t responded to your request, you can report the breach to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Just as you would take basic precautions in a brick-and-mortar store — perhaps hiding your PIN number while paying and making sure the business is legitimate — you should also practice safe shopping habits online. Here are eight ways you can avoid fake websites and other online scams and ensure that you’re dealing with legitimate companies and safe online stores. Use the free McAfee WebAdvisor to check for safe sitesOne of the best ways to tell if an online store is legit and avoid debit and credit card scams, domain name and subdomain name takeovers, and other problems is with a free and effective download like McAfee WebAdvisor. This smart tool helps you surf and shop with confidence, protecting you from malicious sites that can contain:
McAfee WebAdvisor is a free browser extension that downloads quickly and installs easily, working in the background automatically to protect you from malware and phishing as you surf, search, and enjoy online shopping. McAfee WebAdvisor works with Windows 10, 8.1, 8, and 7 (32- and 64-bit) computers and is compatible with these browsers:
Here are other ways to make sure you know when you’re dealing with scammers online. Check the padlock in the address barWhen checking an e-commerce site’s credentials, start with the address bar. Often, hackers will use URLs that are very close to the real site’s URL but not quite the same. Look for typos or use Google to see if a search takes you to the same page. Also, look for a padlock icon in the address bar. Click the padlock and look at the drop-down menu that provides information, such as if the site has a valid certificate like SSL (verifying that the web address belongs to the company), how many cookies are in use, other site settings, and whether your information is safe when sent to this site. The protection is pretty good but not perfect since some cybercriminals have been able to replicate these padlocks or take over legitimate sites that have them. Verify the website’s trust sealTrust seals, such as the TrustedSite certification, are stamps created by a certificate authority (CA) to confirm the legitimacy of a site. A trust seal tells visitors that they are on a safe site and the company that displays the mark prioritizes cybersecurity. Click on it, and you should be taken to a webpage that verifies the authenticity of the trust seal. Use the Google Transparency ReportGoogle’s Safe Browsing technology crawls through billions of web addresses every day on the lookout for unsafe websites. The technology discovers thousands daily — often legitimate sites that have been compromised. Warnings for unsafe sites pop up in your browser and on the Google search engine. You can also search specific URLs to see if a site has been compromised. Check the company’s social media presenceIt’s worth checking a company on social media to see if they appear to have a genuine following and legitimate posts. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) also has suggestions for spotting fake social media accounts, including those on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You should look for:
Review the company’s contact infoAnother way to test the legitimacy of an online retail store is to check its contact information. Does it have a physical address, phone number, and email contact? Does the email address on the contact page have the company domain name in it, or is it generic (like a Gmail address)? If you send an email, does it get delivered? Analyze the overall look of the websiteCheck to see if the e-commerce site looks as if it has been professionally produced or whether it has been thrown together with slapdash results. Are there typos, grammar errors, poor-quality images, and a sloppy design? Does it have a poorly worded return policy or no return policy at all? All the things that undermine the professional appearance and authenticity of a site should be red flags and convince you that you’re on a scam website. Verify if there are company reviewsIf the online company is a legitimate website (not a scam site) and has been around for a while, there should be authentic third-party reviews from previous customers. Review sites include Google My Business, Amazon, and Yelp. If the reviews are uniformly bad, on the other hand, you have another type of problem to confront. See how McAfee WebAdvisor can keep you safe while shopping onlineSince virtual shopping is fast becoming the new norm, it’s important to guard against cybercriminals that are increasingly targeting retailers and their customers. A great way to shop with confidence is to use McAfee WebAdvisor, which is available as a free download. The web browser extension works tirelessly in the background to protect you as you browse and buy. Think of it as a gift to yourself so you can use the internet to its full potential while keeping your information protected. How can you tell if a website review is real?Spotting fake reviews is difficult, but these seven tips can help:. Look at the dates of the reviews. ... . Watch out for reviews that use similar language. ... . Check out the reviewer. ... . Beware of social media reviews. ... . See whether the reviewer's purchase was verified. ... . Pay attention to the language of the review.. Are website reviews legit?Some reviews may look suspicious, and some may look real, but it can often be nearly impossible to tell for sure. For example, you already know to watch out for reviews that seem too positive to be real, but some fake positive reviews give less than the highest possible rating in order to seem more believable. Can you trust any online reviews?Check out the reviewer's legitimacy and number of reviews If you can, check if the reviewer has reviews elsewhere. Many accounts are created to post one fake review. If the reviewer has lots of reviews on other products or places, check to see if they are all uncannily positive (and often short). Is reporting a Google review anonymous?The process is anonymous. Google values user privacy and does not disclose who reported a review. |