This article will give general tips as to how to determine if a website is legitimate and secure.
Is the Website Legitimate?
By checking the address bar, you will need to verify that the site you accessed did not redirect you to a different site. For example, accessing Amazon should bring you to a website with the web address of "amazon.com." If the address bar shows a different website, the website may not be legitimate. Please see the FAQ for further information about web addresses.
Check the website itself before conducting business with the website. Usually, at either the top or bottom of a website, there will be an option that says "Contact Us." If you do not trust a website, contact the company using the contact information they listed. If they do not respond at normal business hours, or their phone number is out of service could mean that the website is not legitimate.
Typically, legitimate businesses would try to keep their website looking professional. Check the website for anything such as spelling errors, major grammatical errors, or if the text on the site makes sense. If any of these things are present, or the website is not presented in a professional manner, the website may not be legitimate.
Searching the web address of the website could bring up results that have people reporting the website for any illegitimate activities that they encountered, such as stealing passwords or email spamming. This should be one of your last resources, since most forum-based websites are notorious for having ads that try to steal information.
Typically, when trying to connect to an illegitimate website, your web browser will prompt you with an error message. If you receive a message like the one below, the website may not be legitimate.
Is the Website Secure?
If there is a 🔒 symbol located before the address in the address bar, this means that your connection to the website is private. Typically, if a website has private connections, then it is a secure website.
Web addresses are split into three different parts: the protocol(https://), the hostname(www.example.com), and the file name. When checking a website's security, if the protocol is "https", then the website has a secure connection.
Generally, a website's Privacy Policy will state how data is collected on the company's website. If you're concerned about the data the website may be gathering, find their Privacy Policy and look for anything concerning Data. If you're unable to find the website's privacy policy, you may not be dealing with a secure site.
Do not log in to the website unless you trust it. Please make sure that the website is also legitimate, by following the tips listed in the "Is the Website Legitimate?" section of this article.
If you do not feel comfortable logging in to the website, do not log in.
If you logged in to the site, be sure to log out as soon as you're finished on the website.
FAQs
Some common web domains are:
.com
.net
.org
.gov (only for official government websites)
If a website does not have one of these domains, it may not be secure or legitimate. This does not mean that websites with these domains are secure or legitimate, these are only commonly used domains.
No. Sometimes legitimate websites do not utilize secure connections. This does not mean that you cannot trust a legitimate website, but that you do need to be careful when utilizing the website.
No. Sometimes a website may have a secure feature to look more legitimate, but the website itself is used to gather passwords or other important data from individuals.
