Payments & shopping
Buyer protection and safer ways to pay unfamiliar sellers.
- What should I check before paying an unfamiliar seller?
Confirm who you are paying, prefer protected payment methods, reject urgency tricks, and verify the website or marketplace profile before you send money.
- Is a bank transfer safe for an online purchase?
Often riskier than protected card or platform checkout because transfers are hard to reverse. Prefer buyer-protected methods with unfamiliar sellers.
- Which payment methods offer buyer protection?
Many card networks and major marketplace checkouts offer dispute paths. Bank transfers, cash, gift cards, and crypto usually offer little recovery.
- Is this payment link safe?
Not by appearance alone. Check the real hostname, whether urgency is forcing a rush, which payment rail you will use, and whether recovery is realistic if something goes wrong.
- How do fake checkout pages work?
Attackers clone a shop’s look and host a lookalike payment page. You enter card or login details that go to the scammer—HTTPS and reviews do not prove the page is real.
