Digital Self-Defense

When shopping on Amazon, how do you decide what product to buy? If you're like most people, you look primarily at the cost and reviews, and maybe the brand.

What most people are missing out on is paying attention to the seller. You can find this just under the Buy Now button - each product has 2 sellers - the "Ships From" and the "Sold By".

Anytime you are buying something "Sold By" someone other than Amazon, click on the seller link. It takes you to their mini website on Amazon.

There you can find lots of useful information, the most important of which is their reviews. I personally avoid buying from sellers with anything less than 90% rating here, and seek for much higher than that. There's plenty that have 100% or close to it.

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The Safe Website Checklist Episodes

One tool that can be useful to help you shop safely online for quality products is paying attention to brands. On the other hand, sometimes the brand doesn't matter much.

If you can look at a product and determine for yourself if it's well made, then brand doesn't matter so much. My daughter knows how to sew, so she can evaluate the quality of dresses, so when we bought a dress online recently, we didn't stress the brand.

Anytime I buy electronics, which is often, I care deeply about the brand. In large part because it is very difficult to gauge their quality quickly, even for a computer geek like me - it takes using them over a long period of time.

When you are on Amazon, and you are wondering if a brand is a good one, check to see if they have a website. Then, apply all the lessons you learned in episodes 70-74.

Also useful to ask when you are evaluating a brand on Amazon: are they mainly an amazon seller with their own website just to seem legitimate? Or, are they an independent seller that is trying to truly build a good brand, and just using Amazon to get more sales?

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After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free updates or fixes for the many bugs found each month in Windows 10. That means it's time to make a hard decision.

Option 1: Do what Microsoft recommends and upgrade to Windows 11. There's many good and valid reasons not to, and my personal plan is to avoid it for hopefuly 5 years still.

Option 2: Pay Microsoft $30 for one year more of fixes, then upgrade to Windows 11. I may do this for a year, then switch to option 3 before moving to Windows 11.

Option 3: Pay 0 Patch about $30 per year for up to 5 years, then upgrade to Windows 11. This is my most likely plan.

Option 4: Don't upgrade to Windows 11, and don't pay any money for any bug fixes. Options 1-3 are fine, but this is the option I highly recommend against! One of the most universally important things you can do to stay safe online is keep Windows (and all software) updated with the latest bug fixes.

Microsoft announces end of support for Windows 10

0 Patch offers 5 years of bug fixes for Windows 10

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If you shop at Amazon much, you've seen a lot of weird brands. I just searched for juggling balls, and here's a sample of the brands it showed: Duncan, Zeekio, POITOI, Schylling, GloFX, Elcoho, Leitee, GoSports, Lawei, URATOT, Cedilis, DSJUGGLING, speevers.

Have you ever wondered why? If not, now's the time to consider it, because the way Amazon does business has massive implications for every American.

The short version is this: Amazon actively recruits oversea sellers, particularly Chinese. Amazon incentivizes all sellers to participate in their Brand Registry program, which requires a trademark. Trademarks currently take 12-18 months to get, and picking random letters and smashing them together makes it faster because it's obvious there's no conflict with an existing trademark.

We will be discussing some of the implications of this system, and strategies for finding quality products in the crowded Amazon marketplace. In the meantime, take some time to ponder what all this means to you.

Amazon Brand Registry Requirements

How Long to Register a Trademark

NY Times - How Amazon is causing us to drown in trademarks

Why Amazon Products Have Those Weird Names

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Have you ever looked at a supposed sale price on Amazon, and wondered if it was real? Wonder no longer!

There's an awesome tool with a funny name - CamelCamelCamel. You just copy the internet address from the item you're looking at on Amazon, and paste it into CamelCamelCamel.com, and you get a detailed price history.

To make it even easier, you can add a special "bookmarklet" that you can click on whenever you're on an Amazon page, and it will take you to CamelCamelCamel.com with that product selected.

It's safe and free - install it now!

Add the Camelet Bookmarklet

Three Colts - The makers of CamelCamelCamel

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After recording nearly 80 episodes, I've learned a lot about how I like to teach. So it's time for my next experiment.

I want to try again to make episodes of about 10 minutes. I want it easier for you to find what you're looking for, and catch up on just the parts that are of greatest value to you.

I also want more flexibility, so we are dropping the opening questions, and the call to actions will only happen sometimes.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on our experiment. Thank you for listening!

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Introduction to Privacy.com

What is Makani's most used online shopping tool?

What are 2 key features it provides?

What 3 subscription problems does it fix?

Privacy.com offers super powered Privacy Cards that you can use to shop online. You create a unique Privacy Card for each business, then pause and set a spending limit for each card as needed.

No more free trials that turn into surprise bills, no more forgotten cancellations, and no more awkward phone calls just to say no.

If you've ever been burned by a subscription, this is the tool you didn't know you needed. Start by listening to Episode 14, so there's no surprises when you signup.

Then click here if you want us both to get a $5 signup bonus. Or click here for the non-referral link where neither of us get a bonus. Either way is great, I just want you protected.

TODO: create my official referral policy somewhere and link to it here

Signup for Privacy.com here and we both get $5

Signup for Privacy.com here and neither of us get $5

More tips from Privacy.com on subscription management

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Check #1 - Is the website less than a year old?

Check #2 - What does Trustpilot say?

What is a Protection Partner

Why does this check sometimes get skipped?

What’s one super simple way to spot a fake shopping site?

Why might a scammer want you to contact them?

Which red flags in a reply should make you walk away?

The third item on our Safe Website Checklist is all about communication: Can You Get an Answer?

Reputable shopping sites usually offer multiple clear ways to get in touch - a phone number, social media, and live chat - not just email. If those channels are missing, broken, or fake, that’s a big red flag.

But even if you can reach someone, don’t let your guard down. Scammers can and do reply - sometimes quickly. The key is how they respond and whether it feels trustworthy. If you’re unsure, bring in your Protection Partner for a second opinion. Trust your gut, or as I call it, your spidey sense.

Pick a trusted shopping website and check which contact methods they offer. Is there a phone number? A real social media presence? Maybe a live chat? Get curious - and the next time you’re on a new site, you’ll know exactly what to look for.

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Episode on Safe Website Checklist Item #1

What is Trustpilot?

How did they help Makani identify a highly enticing scam?

How can you use Trustpilot to help you stay safe while shopping online?

When does Makani use Trustpilot?

Trustpilot helped me avoid a scam for a bogus body scale, called Body Pod and sold by Hume Health.

Trustpilot is a fabulous, independent source for website reviews.

Anytime you are considering shopping at a new website, please look it up on Trustpilot first.

Go test out Trustpilot by looking up a website, or searching by category. This will help you remember to use it the next time you are thinking about shopping at an unfamiliar website.

Search Trustpilot

Browse Trustpilot Categories

Trustpilot review of humehealth.com

Trustpilot review of myhumehealth.com

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Don't Let Websites Send You Notifications

Give Every Website a Unique Email

What bad stuff can happen when you are browsing a new shopping website?

How has browser safety changed over the years?

What are 4 rules to stay safe while browsing the web?

Browsing the web today is safer than it's ever been, as long as you're not doing anything shady.

To stay as safe as possible, there's 4 rules I recommend you follow:

1 - Only use a modern browser, and always keep it updated.

2 - Do not give a website any permissions it doesn't need, including the ability to send you notifications.

3 - Do not download or install anything, especially browser extensions.

4 - Do not enter any personal information.

Rules 2-4 can be broken the more you get to know and trust a website, but start with following them strictly until you are confident they are worthy of your trust.

Make sure that you are using a modern, updated browser.

If there's any question in your mind about this, please come to the forum and I will help.

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