Find out if the site you’re using is trustworthy

Knowing people that have submitted payment online only to never receive their goods and winding up losing money, I’m very cautious about giving out my bank details online.

I’m often tempted to buy stuff on the Net but end up resisting in case the site is dodgy. Step forward CallingID, a program designed to indicate which pages are safe to send information to or register with.

The software installs a subtle indicator panel in your browser which changes colour depending on the page you’re visiting: green for verified sites, yellow for moderate risk and red means it’s more likely that the site is fraudulent.

What’s more, CallingID also displays information about the physical domain with which the site was registered.

CallingID has its own risk assessment team and a series of monster databases listing sites that have been reported as shifty, so I guess the information is pretty accurate, although it’s difficult to test this.

CallingID Toolbar uses 54 verification tests to evaluate web sites. When any of these tests fail, the user is urged to rethink his or her intention to submit personal information, username, password and credit card number, or to place an order from that site.