Without payment protection how can we avoid a scam?
The truth is, until we solved the trust problem, without payment protection buyers simply had to put their trust in the website they were buying from. OK, so there are some methods that buyers can use to give themselves the best chance of avoiding a scam and we go over each of them below, but none of these methods are full proof as none can offer the peace of mind that our solution does.
The quality of the website
Let’s face the facts, we all judge by appearances whether we are aware we are doing it or not. Our bodies are hardwired to draw instant conclusions and assumptions to help us make decisions. That bad feeling you get in the pit of your stomach is just your bodies’ way of warning you to tread more carefully. What does your stomach tell you when you look at our website? What do you feel about other ID sites you’ve been on?
Websites can be made in a bedroom and plenty of successful ones in history have been. However the world of websites has changed a lot over the past 10-15 years and as our company has been around for all that time, we have witnessed them all. The truth is if it looks like it took a lot of time and money to build it and fill it up with content then there is a good chance that it probably did.
We might decide to check that the information on the website is original and not just swiped from another website. We’ll look for professional quality photos, images and layout to give us a positive impression. Likewise, we’ll look to avoid websites with excessive grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
Now money and time spend building a website are in no way certain indicators that you can trust a website. After all, some of the most successful scams and robberies in history were well funded and meticulously planned. What you can establish is a general impression to help with your buying decision. If the website looks bad then what does that tell you about the company behind it? With respect to fake ID’s, even if a terrible looking website do actually send out cards, what does it tell you about the likely quality of those cards?
Testimonials
You might think that testimonials from actual customers writing about their experience dealing with a particular company would be a good way to filter out the good and the bad, and you’d be right, but there is a catch. Unfortunately, for testimonials to be effective you must already trust the website you are reading the testimonial on and you must also trust you are reading real comments from real customers.
These guys are amazing! I think I might love them. I want to stick my pee-pee in their hole!
WOW! Mega awesome, blah, blah, blah!
In the world of fake ID websites, testimonials often read like adverts, and rarely use the kinds of words or phrases you might use if you were writing something nice about an experience that you had with a company. It doesn’t take a genius to work out they were written by the website owner or someone who works for them. We don’t use them, we never have, we never will. We suggest you ignore them completely on sites you don’t trust yet and move on!
Reviews
Many people search for reviews from past customers on independent websites to help them assess whether a site is genuine or not. This is often a very good way to help you with your assessment because, unlike testimonials, reviews can be read on independent review websites that likely have no affiliation with the website being written about. However, much like testimonials, you first must trust the review website and then you must trust that the reviewer is being honest about their experience.
Trusting review sites is often the easy part. There are many well established, branded review sites that we are all familiar with.
The problem with fake ID review websites and forums is that many have both positive and negative reviews for the same company. How do you know which ones are being honest and which are not? Truthfully, you don’t. Many of the positive reviews might have been written by the company itself. They may also have written negative reviews about their competitors’ websites.
The next problem is specific to all ID card companies. Because traditional payment services are not available to us, most of us accept cash in the post as a possible method of payment. If our customers ignore our advice on sending cash safely in the post then they risk it getting stolen. Now who do you think that customer is going to blame when they are told their money never arrived? Do you think they might post a bad review? Of course they will, and who could blame them for thinking we were trying to rip them off!
With so many mixed reviews out there for ID sites, it’s pretty hard to determine if a customer was actually ripped off or is just looking for someone else to blame for them taking risky shortcuts when sending cash in the post.
Customer Service
This one is often overlooked. If someone is out to steal from us then of course they will offer great customer service, won’t they?
The scammer wants your money quickly with little fuss. The effort they put into convincing you they are not out to con you must be weighed against the potential rewards they will get if you are taken in by them. They know if they steal from you then you are not going to be taken in by them again or refer them to friends, so there is a limit to the amount they can gain from you and therefore a limit to the lengths they will go to in order to make that gain.
Legitimate companies just like scam websites are driven by the motivation to make money. However, unlike scams, a legitimate company has a huge motivation to make sure their customers are happy, they are looking for repeat business and referrals and will work hard to get them.
If you are worried about spending money with a website then get in touch with them. Contact them many times if necessary. So long as your requests are reasonable and your demands fair then expect that website to take the time to put your fears at rest. You might not be able to trust a website just because they have great customer service but you can safely and wisely ignore any website that demonstrates poor quality customer relations. Why take the risk?