This company and its website are the perfect example of the red flags to look for before making an online purchase.
1) There are no ""seals"" from certification companies, such as the BBB or e-Trust. -- If a website does show one or more of these seals, make sure to click on the seal. It should take you to that certifier's website and provide info on the company you're investigating. If the seal isn't clickable or doesn't go to the certifier's website and provide details, it means the seal isn't legitimate. Big red flag.
2) No physical address is given anywhere on the site. -- Often times, legitimate companies will be so obvious as to put their physical address on every page by including it in the footer. Whether it's in the footer or not, most legitimate companies will provide a physical address as well as a phone number on their ""Contact Us"" page. At the very least, the company should give a city and state whose laws they are operating under, usually on the ""Terms & Conditions"", ""User Policies"", or ""End Users License Agreement"" page. In this example, USDeceptions gave no contact method other than: a) an email address [email protected], which tells you nothing, and b) a web form to contact them, which also tells you nothing.
Respectable companies will, in their Terms & Conditions, say something very close to ""All disputes regarding these services will be governed by the laws of (their city) in the state of (their state)."" Now you know where the parent company is located and what Better Business Bureau to contact if you have a dispute you need help resolving.
USDeception.com only gives this generic text in its T&C: ""Any dispute, controversy or difference which may arise between the parties out of, in relation to or in connection with this Agreement is hereby irrevocably submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of US, to the exclusion of any other courts without giving effect to its conflict of laws provisions or your actual state or country of residence."" Do you see a city/state? Not. Why is a street address important before you buy? For one, you can look the company up on BBB.com for negative reports, and you can distinguish between companies with similar names when you search RipOffReport.com.
3) You have to go to WhoIs to get any real info. -- Every web site must be registered with a domain provider. This means they need to give contact information to the company that is selling/renting them the domain name. By going to www.WhoIs.net and entering the web address of the company, you can see the name of the domain registration company and the info on the company which registered the site. In the case of USDeception.com, the domain company is enom.com. The registrant (owner of USDeception.com) is WHOISGUARD, INC. in the country of Panama. That's right, not even a US company, AND there's not even a street address, just a PO Box. Forget their ""60 day guarantee"". Do you REALLY want to make a trip to Panama if you need to take them to court?
4) Contact information should be consistent. -- Looking a little further down the WhoIs report, the phone number given for the registrant is a Minnesota number (using reverse lookup) and the admin number is someplace in Washington state. There's absolutely no good way to track these guys down or look them up on the BBB.com website even if they are a trustworthy site that treated customers fairly.
Before you give your hard earned money to any company on the web, make sure you already know they're legit beforehand, such as Amazon.com or LLBean.com, or do your research and check out at least the items listed above.
USDeception.com Reviews
This company and its website are the perfect example of the red flags to look for before making an online purchase.
1) There are no ""seals"" from certification companies, such as the BBB or e-Trust. -- If a website does show one or more of these seals, make sure to click on the seal. It should take you to that certifier's website and provide info on the company you're investigating. If the seal isn't clickable or doesn't go to the certifier's website and provide details, it means the seal isn't legitimate. Big red flag.
2) No physical address is given anywhere on the site. -- Often times, legitimate companies will be so obvious as to put their physical address on every page by including it in the footer. Whether it's in the footer or not, most legitimate companies will provide a physical address as well as a phone number on their ""Contact Us"" page. At the very least, the company should give a city and state whose laws they are operating under, usually on the ""Terms & Conditions"", ""User Policies"", or ""End Users License Agreement"" page. In this example, USDeceptions gave no contact method other than: a) an email address [email protected], which tells you nothing, and b) a web form to contact them, which also tells you nothing.
Respectable companies will, in their Terms & Conditions, say something very close to ""All disputes regarding these services will be governed by the laws of (their city) in the state of (their state)."" Now you know where the parent company is located and what Better Business Bureau to contact if you have a dispute you need help resolving.
USDeception.com only gives this generic text in its T&C: ""Any dispute, controversy or difference which may arise between the parties out of, in relation to or in connection with this Agreement is hereby irrevocably submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of US, to the exclusion of any other courts without giving effect to its conflict of laws provisions or your actual state or country of residence."" Do you see a city/state? Not. Why is a street address important before you buy? For one, you can look the company up on BBB.com for negative reports, and you can distinguish between companies with similar names when you search RipOffReport.com.
3) You have to go to WhoIs to get any real info. -- Every web site must be registered with a domain provider. This means they need to give contact information to the company that is selling/renting them the domain name. By going to www.WhoIs.net and entering the web address of the company, you can see the name of the domain registration company and the info on the company which registered the site. In the case of USDeception.com, the domain company is enom.com. The registrant (owner of USDeception.com) is WHOISGUARD, INC. in the country of Panama. That's right, not even a US company, AND there's not even a street address, just a PO Box. Forget their ""60 day guarantee"". Do you REALLY want to make a trip to Panama if you need to take them to court?
4) Contact information should be consistent. -- Looking a little further down the WhoIs report, the phone number given for the registrant is a Minnesota number (using reverse lookup) and the admin number is someplace in Washington state. There's absolutely no good way to track these guys down or look them up on the BBB.com website even if they are a trustworthy site that treated customers fairly.
Before you give your hard earned money to any company on the web, make sure you already know they're legit beforehand, such as Amazon.com or LLBean.com, or do your research and check out at least the items listed above.