Call the vendor first, before you place your order. You will find that almost all of the scams that originate online happen with dealers that do not answer the telephone. That can be extremely frustrating. If you get a recording stating that “All agents are busy helping other customers”, and they have you holding on the telephone for five minutes or more, it is usually a tactic that they are using in hopes that you will just give up and order online. If you are forced to leave a message and have someone call you back, be wary, this is not a good sign. Remember, if they won’t answer the phone to take your order, they aren’t going to answer the phone when you call with a problem either.

Having to login with passwords just to place an order. Be careful when buying from stores that force you to login with passwords just to purchase an item. You shouldn’t be forced to enter pages and pages of information just to get a total price, including shipping.

Import models, this seems to be the most common scam found among those dealers with Camera, Digital or Plasma in their name" They bait you with a really ridiculous low price, make you go through all the motions only to find out that the price is for an import or gray goods model that carries NO USA warranty. The funny part is that in most cases this import model never existed. It was just a tactic to get another $500.00-$600.00 out of you because you didn't buy their extended service contract for $800-$1000.00.

High-pressure sales to buy accessories or warranties. If you try to order something online, and during your order you immediately get a salesman trying to sell you accessories and service contracts, BEWARE. These companies are relentless, and, if you do not buy their overpriced warranties and accessories your order will probably never ship. You may not find this out for days or even weeks.

Is the item really in stock? Are you looking for a hard to get item? If you want to try something fun, call one of the many dealers who claim that they have the item in stock. Ask them about picking the item up at their warehouse. No matter where the dealer is, tell them a family member lives in the area and they will pick it up for you. If the dealer tells you he can’t do that, it usually means he didn’t have the item in stock at all.

Read the reviews. Statistically, online vendors are lucky to get one person in several hundred to leave an on-line review. If you happen to see a group of glowing five star reviews, that were all written on the same day, and a large number of very bad ratings, it usually means that the good reviews were written by employees of that company and were put there to fool you. Most of the warnings in this list will be reflected in the bad reviews that any dishonest company receives.

Brooklyn, NY. Oh Yes! It seems that many of the shady dealers are located in Brooklyn, NY. So beware.

Read the store policies! You should watch out for dealers that make the “Store Policies” on their site hard to find. You should always be careful and check if items are exchangeable or returnable. Also, find out about any restocking charges. Some dealers will charge up to 25% just to return an item, so beware.

Is the store address listed? Stores that do not list their address are giving you a clue about there legitimacy. If they don’t want you to be able to find them, be very afraid!

Do not buy on price alone. Remember, online dealers know that most customers shop by just looking for the lowest price. Once they have you captive, you are then vulnerable to a whole list of scams. There is a saying “There is nothing in the world that can’t be sold cheaper” and, “Those that shop by price alone are man’s lawful prey”