There was an article published on the BBC news site today about the number of co.uk websites that are setup by Chinese organisations to con UK surfers into buying non-existant goods. The Beeb suggest a few things to prevent the unwary surfer from being caught out by these sites: They advised people to reduce the risks of being duped by:

• Searching for any user reviews of the site;
• Double clicking on the padlock symbol in the corner to reveal details about the company that registered the site; and
• Trying to connect the site to the real world by finding phone numbers or UK addresses.

Another great method is to use FlagFox (http://flagfox.net/). This plugin for FireFox gives you a little flag icon in your search bar letting you know where in the world the site is hosted. Great for finding the true geographical location of a website.

Original article here.