A recent study found that four out of five Internet users claim that their ability to trust the information on a website is the number one component in their decision to visit or make a purchase on a site. Establishing web credibility is very important to the success of an Internet business, and one of the best ways to do that is by using third party verification and privacy seals. A privacy seal will reassure your customers that their data is protected and that making a purchase with your company will be a positive and safe experience.

You might be wondering “Can’t anyone fake a privacy seal?” The answer is yes, and this is something you definitely need to be aware of.  It costs money to verify a website, and check out the business and its owners.  It costs money to review a privacy policy and to make sure that the website is actually secure.  As a business owner, look for good deals, but make sure that you are getting the real thing.  As a consumer, make sure that the privacy seal displayed on the website is current, meaning it will show the current date on the seal and that it has been verified as of that date. A legitimate company offering privacy seals will conduct a thorough examination of the website and its privacy policy to make sure that it meets its standards of trust and safety.

Truste offers several types of privacy seals.  These are: Web Privacy Seal, E-mail Privacy Seal, EU Safe Harbor Seal, Japan Privacy Seal and Children’s Privacy Seal.  If you want to learn more about any of these seals, check out their website.

ControlScan, as previously stated, is a company that provides website security in the form of PCI Scanning.  They focus their methods and techniques on providing security for smaller to medium sized companies which are often ignored by other services who focus their attention on the larger companies.

Because they focus on security compliance for smaller companies they understand what needs to be done to get these companies to the level of security that they need.  Other PCI Scanning Vendors focus on larger businesses, and larger businesses need more security and therefore the process of becoming PCI compliant is very complex.  Because ControlScan focuses on smaller and medium sized businesses they are able to cut out a lot of the extra things that larger companies have to do in order to become security compliant.  This makes the whole process a lot easier and a lot less confusing and time consuming.

If you have a smaller to medium sized business and are thinking about becoming security compliant, it would definitely be worth your time to check into website security providers such as ControlScan that mainly focuses on helping smaller sized companies become PCI Compliant.  This could help increase the security on your website and make the whole process a lot easier on you.

Instead of just looking to see if a site has a trust seal on it you may have to take it a step further and actually click on the seal.  If the seal is real it should take you to a page that will verify things about the business, etc. but if the seal is a fake it probably won’t lead anywhere but will just be a copy of the picture.  Unfortunately the copy of the picture of the trust seal tricks quite a few people who do not realize that you actually have to click on the picture.

If you put forth this little bit of extra effort you will definitely be rewarded with all the benefits that trust seals provide.  Not only will you have the websites guarantee that they are an honest company who will protect and secure your information, but now you have an unrelated third party who is also willing to vouch for this companies security.

I don’t know about you, but I will not even risk shopping on sites that do not have trust seals, and now I know that is also important to actually click on the trust seals.  I know that by just doing these small things it will go a long way in protecting me against all the hackers and other security issues out there.  So to answer the question, YES Trust Seals Really Matter!

Phishing – Phishing is a scheme where criminals use another person’s email or website to try and trick the visitor into divulging personal information such as passwords or financial information.

Spoofing – When a person pretends to be someone else by using their website or email.

Identity Theft – When a person steals another person’s personal info.

Credit/Debit Card Fraud – Unauthorized use of credit card or debit card to obtain money or items.

Non-Delivery of Goods/Services –  When goods or services that have been paid for, are never delivered to the person who paid for them.

Online Auction – Misrepresentation of a product advertised online or the failure of delivery of a product purchased online.

Advance Fee Schemes – When the victim of fraud must pay large fees before receiving money or merchandise, and then they receive nothing in return.

Trust seals, also known as web seals, trust marks, or verification seals are small images placed on a website to verify that they are a legitimate business.  They are designed to ease a consumer’s mind about online fraudulent activities.  They let consumers know that the business follows specific practices, and a detailed privacy policy.  It means that the website is willing to have its business verified by a third party, because in order to display legitimate trust seals, merchants go through an extensive verification process.

BBB online trust seals are awarded to businesses that meet the verification process that they have in place.  BBB online monitors compliance frequently.  When using the internet, consumers must be sure they are looking out for trust seals from companies like the BBB online.