Friend or Foe? Background Checks for Free Sites.
5 resources to use for background checks on any website, service or product!

The internet provides some wonderful opportunities. Unfortunately those opportunities are not just for people with good intentions. While there are now pheonomonal methods of communication, resources for super fast information, and (my favorite) ways to get stuff for free, the internet also comes with a variety of problems: scams, spam, phising, identity theft, viruses, worms, trojans, fraud, stalkers and false information. With the right resources and education, all of these problems can be avoided, thus making the internet a weedless garden for online greenthumbs.

There are third-party websites which offer the resources and education needed to avoid the pitfalls of the internet. This article is intended to describe some of the services available.

User-edited reports

Some websites provide the means for users and consumers to offer reports of their experiences. The classic example of a website that offers this service for business clients is Yelp.com. If a mechanic jips someone on a repair, the person can go on Yelp to vent about it and warn other people not to use that mechanic. Other examples of websites that accept user-edited submissions are RateItAll.com, RipOffReport.com and Epinions.com

Some "users" create their own blogs and websites to publish their reports and experiences. An example is ActuallyFree.info. The author of this website is reporting his own experiences on getting freebies.

There is one downside to user-edited reports. No one knows the credentials of the user. Since virtually anyone can submit their experience, there are bound to be people whose emotions skew their report. A business could be completely legal and offer good services and products. Yet, if they have one unhappy customer, there will be a bad report on Yelp that leads customers away.

Professional Critics

A professional critic is not the average, every-day-user and consumer. They try products and services and make a living off their reports. Their reports also include more quantitative measures. (Ie. They use some kind of numerical standard.) A report on a drill will state the number of rotations per minute. A report on a car will give gas mileage. And so on. The quantitative measures help to make the report more universal for everyone. Two people may disagree on what the gas mileage should be for a "quality" car and give two different reports on a user-submitted website. Yet no one can argue that a car has 24 miles per gallon.

One of the few categories of professional reports that are based solely on oppinion (and often even contradict the numbers) are movie critics. Another category might be fasion. But of course there are exceptions to every rule.

When it comes to internet safety, some of the professional critics include the government-owned BBB.org and numerous sites that offer website seals of trust. These sites have a way of measuring the programs, businesses, and websites that they report. For example, the Better Business Bureau gives the number of customer complaints for a business and they have a checklist of good business practices that they refer to when they give their reports. Sites that offer seals of trust will have measures to verify that the websites who display their seals will keep the personal and financial information of their users safe and private.

Educational Sites

Some third-party sites simply offer information that help people avoid the pitfalls of the internet. They won't say to stay away from a website because they sell email addresses for phishing. They describe the importance of making sure users read privacy policies on all websites. They also describe what "phishing" actually is and how to recongnize it in order to avoid it. Educational sites offer the exact type of information that this article is offering.

Examples of educational sites are ConsumerWebWatch.org and OnGuardOnline.gov.

By the way, phishing is when a fake organization sends you an email with link. They make the email look like an organization that you're a part of, like PayPal or MySpace. They tell you something is wrong with your account and you need to log on to fix it by clicking on the link. When you click on the link you're brought to a fake log in page. When you enter your login information, you're actually just submitting your information to the fake site. They use it to log on to your account on the real site and do a lot of damage, like sending spam to all your friends or withdrawing money. Avoid this by never clicking on links in emails and enter the web address of the site in your browser manually. Also, most real emails will use the name that you used to sign up for the service, not a general term like "dear users" or "dear members".

Special software

The best protection from unsafe websites is to have updated antivirus software. Free antivirus software resources are listed at ActuallyFree.info.

McAfee is a well-known paid antivirus software brand. Beyond selling their antivirus sorftware, they also provide free reports of websites. They have a database of websites that they've tested for safety. They scan downloads from the sites, count the number of pop-ups, and the number of spam received when an email was submitted. The reports can be found at SiteAdvisor.com

Other Pearls

Websites like GPTBoycott.com report on whether websites with Get-paid-to programs actually pay out.

Any domain name registration service provides free WhoIs searches. A whois search will reveal the name and contact information of the person or business that owns a website address. Sometimes proxy information is listed. A proxy in this context is a service that lists their information so that the domain name owner can avoid revealing personal information on the internet. This can be a very useful service when an individual owns a domain name, but its a very bad sign when a "business" uses proxy information. If a website claims to be a legitimate business then it should have no secrets. Any legitimate business should be easy to contact and they would want to get their name out in any way possible.

If you're worried that a website might transmit a virus to your computer, but you still want a chance to check it out, then there are at least two resources that can be useful. You can use search.spacetime.com to see a website's homepage without actually visiting the site. You can also read the site's "about us" information on AboutUs.org.

Third-party verification sites are a great way to explore unfamiliar internet territory. They'll keep your computer and your information safe. So use them.

A more detailed description of the resources mentioned in article can be found at ActuallyFree.info. Other third-party sources are also added to the list continually.

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