Maybe you have almost paid on a site that felt wrong, or waited for a parcel that never came. This lesson is about the tells that separate a real online shop from a scam before your money leaves the account.
You will weigh three invented shop pages, give each a pass, concern or avoid verdict, and write an Online Shop Checklist with your reasoning. That checklist goes into your Communication Portfolio as m2_l49_shop_checklist_<your-initials>.
Before you buy, four checks do most of the work. Treat a real address, phone number and independent reviews as hard evidence, not decoration.
| Term | What it means for you | Example |
|---|---|---|
| HTTPS: padlock and https:// at the start of the address; the S means the connection is encrypted. | No padlock means do not type card details on that page. | Legitimate Irish bank and major shop checkouts show HTTPS and a padlock before you enter card details. |
| Domain age: how long the web address has existed. | A brand-new domain is a warning, not proof: on its own it means concern. | A .ie fashion shop whose web address was registered last month. |
| Scam tells: fake timers, gift-card or bank-transfer-only payment, impossible prices. | Pressure like this means avoid. Gaps such as form-only contact, no street address or a sudden burst of reviews mean concern: check more before you pay. | A trainer site demanding gift cards inside a five-minute countdown. |
| Return policy: written rules for sending goods back: days, postage, how the refund arrives. | Vague or missing returns leave you stuck if the parcel is wrong or never comes. | "30 days, free returns in Ireland, refund to the card in five working days" is clear; "Contact us if unhappy" is not. |
On these pages the domain age is given. On a real shop, use a free domain-age or WHOIS lookup your teacher names.
Worked example. PeakRun Gear (invented): https://peakrun.ie with a padlock; About names a Galway company with a landline; independent reviews span two years; returns 30 days, free within Ireland. That is a pass: the tells line up and nothing pushes you to pay in a panic.
Three invented shop pages are waiting below. For each one, decide your own verdict (pass, concern or avoid) and note one or two tells that decided it before you open the model reasoning. Then compare. There is no score.
This step is practice only. Keep your notes short. You will write the full Online Shop Checklist properly in the next step for your Communication Portfolio.
Write your Online Shop Checklist for the three shops you just judged. This is the only Communication Portfolio piece for today: a short written judgment a classmate could follow.
For each shop give the verdict (pass, concern or avoid), the tells you used, and two or three sentences of reasoning from your own notes, not a copy of the model text. Then do one quick pass: star your strongest entry and rewrite the weakest two sentences. Copy the finished checklist into your Communication Portfolio as m2_l49_shop_checklist_<your-initials>.
If time is tight: write two shops fully (Harbour Light and UltraKicks) and bullet FlashDeal. Same filename. You still bank a finished piece.
Talk this through with the person beside you, or sit with it quietly:
If you want the longer version, put a few lines in your Reflective Journal after class.
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