In this article, as the header gives away, I shall be discussing on how to recognize a business that applies either unethical or illicit practices (or both).
There are numerous trademarks and/or similar footprints etc. these types of businesses can be identified by. First example is that their website does not get a lot of visitors; any reputable business that lives off of itself will get a good deal of traffic relatively speaking, compared to the industry it is embroiled in. Secondly, these types of businesses try to embellish how skilled they are and related and how much they have sold in the way of wares and products in an unrealistic manner, for example placing a counter with how many customers they have served on their website that gives away unrealistic figures e.g. a pottery business that has only existed for a year having had over a thousand customers. Thirdly, there is little to nothing in the way of reviews or similar feedback that can be found (online), or what you can find is clearly automated, disingenuous or inorganic. Also, the business does not talk about what they do in a direct manner and how they do it, and does not give a clear outline in the way of its operations, but rather talks around what it does. And it just goes on…contact information such as address, phone number and whatnot are generally speaking either obscured or not in alignment with the physical location of the business.
The beauty in all of this is that you don’t need to be tech-savvy or similar; there are online checking tools you can use to check information regarding a business that has an internet presence (and to a lesser extent even those that don’t).
Whois lookup(s) give away information in the way of what web hosting company the business is working with, when the website of said business was first registered and so on.
Company registration databases do similar to the aforementioned as well, but specifically information regarding the company; the registry date, the nature of the business, the people involved in the business, their roles etc.
Reverse image searching images, phone numbers and related as well as the names of the people mentioned etc. also goes a long way.
Lastly, below you’ll also find website(s) that aid one to determine the legitimacy of a business. The only other thing you need to do is put all of this information together, utilize common sense and related and then you can draw your own conclusion(s).
https://www.disputesregister.org/advice/company-registries-by-country
PS. This article is an extension of this one:
