How To Stay Safe When Purchasing Fishing Tackle Online
Purchasing fishing gear online is great, but you are always at risk of being targeted by scammers. Particularly in the current situation, the rising demand for online retail and products delivered straight to the customer’s door has led to more and more scammers setting up a fake online presence, taking your money for products that never arrive. Learning how to spot these scams is an important part of online shopping, and we are here to show you some of the things you should keep an eye out for next time you try shopping online for fishing tackle. Let us take a look at some signs of a safe, trusted website.
HTTPS URLs
If the URL of a website starts with "HTTPS" rather than "HTTP," then that means that the site is equipped with reliable data security software. Anything you input on an HTTPS secured website is kept safe and encrypted, ensuring that hackers cannot access that information. You can trust your payment information, address, and any other details you input on an HTTPS website to stay safely protected from malicious data miners and hackers.
Registered Business Addresses
A legitimate, trustworthy business will always have a registered business address listed clearly on its website. Sometimes that will be on the contact page, or sometimes simply at the bottom of the homepage. If you are at all unsure about a business, do a quick google maps search for the address in question. If it is a residential address or a PO box address, then you probably should not trust the business! You are looking for a legitimate place of business such as a business park or industrial estate.
Site Reviews
An easy way to tell if a site is legitimate is to look for reviews on independent sites such as Trustpilot. If there are a lot of negative reviews, then you should avoid the site. Positive testimonials on the company's website are meaningless, as these can be easily faked. Only trust user reviews on independent websites! Often, checking the negative reviews of a site can be more useful than reading the positive ones, as you can rely on negative reviews to be genuine in pretty much every case.
Contact the Site via Phone
Nobody likes to make phone calls, but sometimes they have their uses. It is easy to make a fake email address that sounds legitimate, but phone contact is a great way to get the measure of a site. If they do not have a phone number available on their website, you should avoid them – that is a big red flag. If you are not sure, then you can phone up the site, ask some technical questions, and see if their answers sound legit. Scammers do not usually sound knowledgeable on the phone!
Conclusion
These are a few of the best practices to use when shopping online, and that applies to buying fishing tackle in the same way as any other online shopping activity. When you are buying fishing gear online, stick to trusted sites such as North east tackle who are running special deals on the T900 (found here https://www.northeasttackle.co.uk/sea-fishing-tackle-c5/sea-rods-c101/century-eliminator-t900-rod-14ft-4in-p2546). If you follow these guidelines and trust your gut, you should be able to get your hands on some great fishing gear without risking getting scammed by unscrupulous traders!