Technological and software advancements these days have made it easy for anyone to set up their own website without necessarily needing any help from the paid professionals anymore. Timeshare scammers have been known to take advantage of this by creating websites overnight to try to dupe innocent victims. To help you spot an online scam or fraudulent website we have provided here is a step by step guide with some tips on what could be a red flag of a bogus company.
- Step 1, Infocif.es / Companies House– Most company websites will display an official company number usually on the footer of the website. You can search this on Companies House (UK) or using Infocif.es (Spain) depending on where the company says it is registered. If they do provide a number but the search provides no results, this would be unusual and suspicious. Even if the search does show valid results, it will show you the date that the company was formed, whilst this does not confirm their trustworthiness, many scam companies we have been informed abut have only been registered for a short time (usually less than 12 months).
- Step 2, Contact Details– Legitimate companies are transparent about their contact details from the beginning.
A sign that the company you are dealing with might not be genuine is if they are using a mobile number instead of a landline number. Some genuine small companies may only have a mobile phone, however if a business is claiming to be a large company with years of experience and it has no landline number then this would be suspicious. If you are suspicious as to who has called you, there is also the option to do a reverse phone number look up online to see if there are any comments on who has phoned from that number.
- Step 3, Whois Lookup – A company whose website is only 6 months old but is claiming to having helped hundreds or thousands of people in that time or in the case of legal claims has stated numerous legal victories already in those months (which would take years) is unlikely to be telling you the truth. You can search for a domain using a website called ‘Whois Lookup’. It will tell you were the domain is registered and how old it is, along with other details.
- Step 4, Google Street View– Search for the companies registered address in Street View on Google Maps to see if it is registered to an actual office or if the company has chosen a location at random. Also be sure to check that the address on the company’s registration, website and T&C’s all match up.
- Step 5, Online Reviews– Although not always accurate, seeing what previous customers of a company have thought about their services could be a great way to find out what you’ll really be getting. However, if a website is fake then you can bet that the reviews published on their own site about their amazing services are too. You can search for the company online, just take everything with a pinch of salt!
- Step 6, Payment Options– Where a company is requesting payment for a service they should provide options including the option to pay by credit card. It is not recommended to pay by bank transfer as if something goes wrong it is much harder to get your money back. Bank transfers are not covered by the same protection offered to credit card and Paypal payments.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk