What does being a yahoo store mean and how does that protect me. store not in bbb. thanks a lot, Sandy?

Question

i want to buy something and this site has the best price. I don't know how to check them out. They are not registered with the BBB and tell me they have been in business in their store front for 30 years. (not online all that time.) They tell me i am protected by Yahoo, but i don't know how that works and can't seem to find it. Thanks a lot,

Sandy

Answer 1

Two parts to this answer:

1) How do you know a site is legitimate?  

Many things you can do here:

--look for security or trust logos (though these can be placed on any site and are no guarantee if they do not link to the site certifying them). Many businesses use these but the cost may be too high for some so not having these does not mean a site is not trustworthy.

--did you get to the site from a sponsored search ad? If so, the site may be more trustworthy as they are spending money to bring in traffic.

--look for a business address and then look up the address on Yahoo! Maps. If it exists, it is another signal the business may be trustworthy.

--look for a phone number and call them. Some sites may just want to handle inquiries through email so not phone number listed is not an automatic disqualifier.

--do a search for the business name + customer review or feedback. You may find links to customer opinion sites with reviews for this store.

--is the store in Yahoo! Shopping? If so, then you can likely read customer reviews about the buying experience.

Look on these as a scoring system. Missing one or two may not disqualify a site per se, and every piece of info you gather are points towards how trustworthy you may feel a site is.

Regardless of all of the above, use a credit card or PayPal as these offer some buyer protection automatically (consult those services for exact details of any protection you may have).

2) Is a site legitimate just because it is hosted on Yahoo!?

The short answer is no--fraud can happen anywhere. That said, Yahoo! does take all reasonable measures to monitor and respond to fraudulent activities. Yahoo! also does take measures to ensure buyer data for credit card transactions adheres to the industry guidelines for card security.