Don't Fall Prey to These Common Shopify Development Scams
Tags: webdev, programming, community
Published: 2022-06-16 10:10:57

Through online stores, eCommerce platforms allowed small enterprises to reach a wider market and reach clients beyond their location and borders. At the same time, it enabled shoppers to discover a wide range of new products through the Shopify platform which provides well-organized dropshipping and convenience of use. Every coin, however, has two signals. The bad news is that store owner and customers on Shopify platforms is not always safe from fraudsters. The good news is that e-commerce platforms have extensive verification mechanisms and a large community that exchanges reviews. So, it's simple to figure out which eCommerce store is scamming people. In this post, we will discuss the different types of scams prevalent on the Shopify platform.

Different types of Scams Prevailing in the Shopify Platform
During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Shopify became the most preferred eCommerce platform for shoppers and retailers to keep their businesses afloat. It introduced a slew of new features and upgrades aimed at improving the user experience, ranging from improved algorithms to a longer trial period and know-how resources for newcomers. Naturally, this seemed to attract even more fraudsters. So, one can avail of [Shopify development services](https://www.brihaspatitech.com/shopify-development-services/) to prevent online store scams.

## Worst eCommerce Scams a business owner should be aware of:

Knowing what to look for is your first line of protection against eCommerce fraud. The following are the most typical online store frauds.

- Employee Fraud
- Refund Fraud
- Discount Abuse
- Sweethearting (false price adjustments)
- Vendor Theft
- Shopify Duplicate Scheme
- Wardrobing

## How to prevent the Worst Shopify Scams?

Now that you know how Shopify scams work, it's time to understand how to recognize a fraudulent store and avoid becoming a victim of one of their schemes.

### Check the URL of your Shopify Store.

Check that the URL matches the store's name and isn't misspelt or changed in any way. If the Shopify store appears in the search results, you can always Google the name. This is why many entrepreneurs take the help of the Shopify development agency to protect their online stores.

### Take a look at the Shopify Store's Profile.

The majority of genuine Shopify sites will have an "about" section where you may discover more about the firm. This part is more likely to be omitted entirely or written in broken English with frequent spelling and grammar errors and no specific information on the store's headquarters. Despite this, one can check for a contact number or email address for the Shopify store. To find out who owns the phone number, call it to make sure it links to the right place or type it into an online search.

Most genuine businesses will have a professional-looking email address that resembles their business name. On the other hand, many fake firms employ amateurish email addresses with a lot of random numbers and letters. It is due to the store being shut down by Shopify several times in the past and the necessity to re-register with a new email address. 

### Examine the Photos in the Store

If you notice an item advertised on Shopify for a significantly lower price than elsewhere on the internet, try doing a reverse image search on the photographs to determine where they came from. If the photographs were taken from another website, the Shopify store is most likely a hoax.

### Customer Reviews on Shopify

Check customer reviews for the item you're contemplating and the store's other listings before making a purchase from a Shopify store. Check to see if any of the reviews include product images, which will be more accurate than the site's photos. Keep a look out for fake reviews, which many frauds create themselves. Fake reviews are easy to recognize because they'll all be 5-stars, written in the same voice and tone, and possibly posted at the same time.

### Check Store is PCI compliant.

The payment card industry is very famous for Shopify eCommerce scams. If you are also offering credit card payment options to the customers, you are also PCI compliant. No doubt, all the PCI standards are created and managed by the Security Standard Council of the PCI to ensure the safety of the credit card transaction made by the buyer. Moreover, PCI compliance means your online store and your business's processes meet these PCI standards. So, if you have a SaaS-based store, make sure your store offers compliance.

## Final Words
eCommerce scams are an undesirable feature of doing business online. And, as the technology to counteract them improves, scammers' ability to invent new scams improves as well. The greatest thing you can do is stay watchful, stay up to date on the most recent trends, and do everything you can to avoid it or minimize the impact if it does occur. Even there is one more option a store owner can do is to avail of the Shopify development services to protect the store from scams.