How to unmask a chicken coop scammers website (or any other) in just a few simple steps:
• Click a social media icon like Facebook. You will probably land on a free website builders social page, like Wix. Scammers don’t have social media pages with a fervent following of fans.
• Check the provided business address on Google maps (https://www.google.co.za/maps). Usually, the location is in some town in a distant province, making it difficult to visit in person.
• Scammers don’t accept credit card payments, as it would be easy for the defrauded person to get the money back.
• Drop an image from the suspected website into Google search (https://www.google.com/) for an image reversal search. You will learn a lot about those products, who else uses these pictures and where those images originated.
• If it is a South African website, do a web address look-up on the ‘co.za’ Domain Administration (https://coza.net.za/) database Whois (https://coza.net.za/whois.shtml). Enter the web address and look at the date at ‘creationdate‘. Fraudsters’ websites have usually only been registered recently by someone outside South Africa.
• Check the refund and returns promises. You will be lulled into total peace of mind. There will be a “no questions asked 100% money-back guarantee”, and they shall even cover the cost of returns shipping cost.
• Look them up on Hello Peter (https://www.hellopeter.com/). Even if they started their fraudulent business not that long ago, some victim would voice their warnings soon.
• Compare products and prices with other suppliers. Are the prices too good to be true?