Avoiding Website Design Scams

Establishing a presence on the internet can be relatively easy to achieve but look out for rogue companies offering to build your website.
When you hear about a rogue builder, the more obvious thoughts would turn to brickies, plasterers, plumbers, electricians and the like, conducting substandard work on your house.
But out in the wild west of cyberspace, there’s a new generation of scam builders: website builders.

With the growing pressures of modern competition, and the need to market your business, creating a website seems the obvious answer. However, small businesses are now falling prey to rogue website builders who overcharge for higher listings on Google and over-promise traffic to your website.

Scam website design companies will hard-sell their services and, once they have your money, will fail to produce a decent website promptly – or, in some cases, build one at all. These scammers will simply use generic templates that are widely available (and could, in some cases, even be free), leaving you with a very expensive and uninspiring-looking website.

So how do you avoid potential scams and ensure you have a well designed website that effectively portrays you and your business? The first step is to carry out plenty of research: ask around and read plenty of reviews. The one advantage of the internet being one massive message board for comments is that people will shout out if they have received a terrible service or have been scammed, so check out forums for detailed and honest reviews. Google the name of the company that is calling you, offering the best deal on earth (one obvious tip: it won’t be if they’re cold calling). You should soon pick up on any complaints about them on the web. 

It’s also worth calling our ADI Helpdesk: we have quite a few complaints from members on this topic, and there are several individuals and companies that keep cropping up on our rogue trader radar. And, if you are unfortunate to have been caught out by any such firms, we might be able to help by giving advice on how to deal with these less-than professional outfits. However, remember that if you’ve already consented to the terms and conditions, even over the phone (as distance selling regulations allow for verbal contracts to be made over the phone), and given over your banking and other personal information, or physically signed a contract, it’s very hard to get out of it, unless you can prove that you have been mis-sold a service or there’s some other legal or regulatory issue with how the company operates. It’s important to not allow yourself to be pressured into signing up over the phone: ask them to email details of their offer for you to consider – and do not give them any more information than your email address.

One current scammer is calling ADIs, implying they have an existing account with them and asking to confirm all their address details (and other personal information) ‘for security purposes’. As a general rule, if they’re asking you to confirm your information to them (and you have already established they are not a company who should have your data ie like your bank or utilities provider), they don’t already have it - and therefore this ‘confirmation’ exercise is simply a way of extracting that highly usable data from you for the first time. Once they have it and can evidence you willingly gave it to them, they can even use it to evidence you entering into a relationship, or even verbal contract, with them. In this instance, the company is selling you your listing on Google Places, which is free to set up by yourself and takes five minutes. This company wants to charge you £238 for doing next to nothing.

Websites are a fantastic tool but they require planning, a good design, well-managed content and regular updating. If you decide that you definitely need one, the most important question to answer is what the key objective is in its existence. If it’s to demonstrate to concerned parents and internet-savvy learners that you are a reputable, well-qualified, personable – and, most importantly, licensed – ADI, then a free blog site and social media platforms might be all you need. Even if you’re representing a large driving school, and a website is considered necessary, free blog sites can be used to build websites. Sites such as Wordpress and Google Blogger can create stunning, informative and tailored web pages that are easy and free to set up. Extra customisation features – such as advanced templates and your own domain name – cost extra, but there is a wide range of free templates to choose from and you can buy domain names for as little as £6.98 from companies such as 123.reg and Names.co.uk.

An online presence can be a useful promotional tool for your business: just make sure you avoid the scammers if you decide to build one.