I recently made a big purchase (around $8000) from a website which I'd not heard of, or interacted with, before. It was pretty stressful. I did the obvious res

I recently made a big purchase (around $8000) from a website which I'd not heard of, or interacted with, before. It was pretty stressful. I did the obvious research, reviews, streetview, even phoned them, but all that can be faked if they try hard enough. Fortunately they are legit, and I was reasonably sure they were before I clicked on "buy". I did discount a similar site because I wasn't convinced. My mom is not a techie. She doesn't necessarily think of "fake sites" as being a thing. So a reminder that there's fake out there is not necessarily a bad thing. (To be fair, I work at keeping her at least a bit cautious.) I don't know if it's pushing any bank costs or liabilities away. If you pay money to a scammer, I doubt the bank is liable. I'm not sure the bank can determine the legitimacy of a receiver, or tell a real transaction from a fake one.