How do I tell if a website is safe before buying?

First of all, check if there's a padlock in the address bar and if the URL starts with "https", then look up reviews on Google or other sites - if nobody's talking about it or you only read negative reviews, I'd leave it alone and look elsewhere.

I shop online pretty often when I'm traveling for work, and I've learned to trust my gut along with checking some concrete things. First of all, see if the website has https:// at the beginning (that little padlock that shows up in your browser), because that means the connection is encrypted. Then I always check if there are real contacts - a phone number, a physical address, an email that's not generic. If a site looks like a ghost town with nothing at all, I bail immediately. I read reviews on Google or sites like Trustpilot, and not just the perfect five stars, I'm also interested in regular comments that tell you how it actually works. One time I was trying to book a car rental travel experience from this sketchy site, and just because I saw people complaining about delays in refunds I chose a different company instead.

Another thing I do is check the privacy policy and terms of service. Yeah, they're boring, but if they're not there or they're absurd, that's a red flag. Also look for the VAT number if it's an Italian company, or information about the business. Something that's saved me multiple times is reading specific negative comments - like if someone says "they stole my card info" that's different from "the package arrived late". And honestly, if a site seems off to me, too sloppy in the design or with unrealistic prices, I trust my gut. Better to pay a few euros more on a known platform than take the risk. In 2026 anyway there are tons of safe options, it's not worth the risk.

What the others don't tell you is that it's also worth checking the company's contact details and physical address: if you only find some generic email and nothing else, it's probably a fake site. As a lawyer I've seen some really nasty online scams, so now before any purchase I do a quick search on who's behind the domain - a lot of fraudulent sites use hidden registration data on purpose.

It's not like just checking https and reviews is enough, because even fake sites nowadays put up the padlock and create fake reviews - I've seen all kinds of them during my years of teaching, when we'd take students to do online research. What really matters is seeing if the company has a verifiable history: look for a phone number (not just email), check if they actually exist physically, see how long the domain has been registered (a brand new site asking for money right away is suspicious), and then check if they have clear refund and privacy policies. If something doesn't add up - maybe the company name is vague or the graphics are clearly copied from other pages - trust your gut because in my experience your first instinct usually doesn't lie.