Almost 500 new members who joined Shopify in the last couple of months use #corona or #covid in their name, according to NYTimes. "Often, the sites’ operators are middlemen who fulfill customers’ orders by buying items on other websites — a kind of digital arbitrage known as “dropshipping.” Here's some very basic advice for a newbie e-commerce user in your circle.

1. Train your
Mum to
spot scam
websites

2. Due to COVID-19,
many are
shopping online,
for the first time
in their lives.

3. Here’s how you
can help them to
have a safer
experience

4. Is the URL right?
Is that an
additional
“a” there?
n & m look similar
https://www.amaazon.com/index.html
https://www.amazom.com/index.html

5. Typo in a domain,
A different country,
A missing letter.
https://www.amazon.com/index.html
domain
sub-domain top lvl-domain
file pathprotocol

6. Watch out for
websites posing
as an existing
mainstream
sites.

7. Does the brand
feel genuine?
similar brand borrowing
ZARA’s image & reputation
original brand

8. Are images ok?
Pixelated and low quality
Out of place images
Visuals are out of proportion
Watermarks are blurred

9. Does site texts
not resemble poor
translation using
Google Translate?
Look for Google Translate
& logical errors.

10. Reviews
can be fake

11. Don’t trust
the review with:
Strange or generic usernames
Similar review dates
Grammatical errors

12. Lots of fans,
but not a lot
of likes?
Be suspicious

13. Award on the
website?
Google it & check it’s legitimacy.

14. Stay safe
prettymuchagency.com