Steve Barbarich always made it a point to help consumers find the best bang for their buck. As a pro-consumer businessman, he wants consumers to make the most out of their money and not end up buying a bad product from fly-by-night businesses. Unfortunately, there are lots of scams out there that could ruin everything for customers. Aside from wrongly advertised products sold online, there are instances when people get scammed online because they were made to send money to someone.
Steve Barbarich came up with a few rules that you can easily follow if you want to prevent getting scammed online.
Always read multiple reviews of a product first
One of the things that consumers can do to avoid getting scammed is by reading multiple reviews. From there, they can judge whether or not the reviews are authentic. It is common for lots of consumers to just buy a product based on the rating they see on Amazon or whatever website they are buying from. Unfortunately, this is something that can easily get manipulated by unscrupulous businesses.
Reviews will give you an idea of whether or not the product is good. You will also find out about the negative things about the product. You also don't have to just rely on blogs. It is also possible to go on YouTube and find reviews.
Ask friends for recommendations
There are instances when consumers just can’t trust reviews online. Some reviews use affiliate links. Affiliate links give bloggers a commission if someone clicked the link on their website. The same goes for some YouTube channels. A good way to avoid all these things is by asking your friends for any suggestions. If you feel that you have a small circle to ask from, you can always crowdsource online using sites such as Reddit.
Never give your information online
Aside from products sold online, there are some scams where people end up losing their social media accounts or hackers get access to their bank accounts. A good way to avoid scams is to always make sure that you are not giving away information about yourself. Some hackers make use of games on social media to gain access to a person's information. Some of these games will ask about your age or even about the name of your parents. These compromising information can be used to hack into your account. The next thing you know, someone is already logged in on your email or in your social media.
Don’t send money
A lot of people who are scammed tend to send money to strangers online. Whether he or she is someone you are romantically chatting with on social media or someone who is asking for help, keep in mind that there are scammers who will do everything possible for you to send money online. There are instances when scammers will even use other people’s identity to make you trust him or her.
Steve Barbarich is known for educating people on how not to get scammed. Whether online or in the real world, this is a reality that we all have to face.