Is This Site Legit?

How to distinguish hidden gems from scams

As an arbitrage seller, there is a near 100% chance that when sourcing you will come across a website you’ve never seen before. If I had to go through my old purchasing sheets, I’d guess that I’ve probably bought from over 200 different websites - some of them looking very sketchy.

Sourcing smaller sites can give you access to unique products with less competition, or bigger discounts on more popular stuff. The issue with these smaller sites is that some of them are stuck in 2005 and look like they’ll steal your credit card information.

I often get DMs from people asking about specific sites and if they’re legit, which inspired me to write this post. After evaluating all of the things I list here, you should have a good idea of whether you want to buy from the new site you found.

Cashback Extensions

Extensions like Rakuten, Topcashback and Capital One Shopping are great because you can earn free money for clicking a button before checkout - I’ve personally redeemed over $3000 in gift cards this year from Topcashback.

However, they don’t just make you money. They’re a very strong indicator of a website’s legitimacy. If a big company like Rakuten is giving you cashback for shopping on a website, it’s very likely that Rakuten themselves have vetted the website and deemed it a suitable place for people to shop.