If you’ve bounced around the internet (web) and found a site that has CBD and trusted it, good for you. If you found a site with CBD products online that you bought from but they did a “bait and switch” with you or kept charging your credit card, then welcome to the club!

It’s not the first time scammers entered an industry and decided to prey upon people who really just want good products at good prices. Scammers take all shapes and forms. One of the most common scams is the “too good to be true” offer or one that is more like a “Trial Offer”. If you’re looking to buy CBD online instead of shopping for “CBD Near Me” with your local stores, then be sure to read this entire article to learn some features which will save you a great deal of hassle in the future.

Buy CBD Online

It’s safe to buy CBD online. But, there’s a catch. If you’re wary of buying products online, no matter what the products are, then you’re likely a safer consumer and your purchases are probably safer than most. Being wary when you’re online, whether you’re shopping, social media trolling, or whatever, is a good thing. This is why reputable vendors of CBD don’t do things that set up the “red flags” which are triggered when the average person sees something “fishy”. When it comes to buying CBD products online, it’s no different from buying any products from any vendor online – you really need to do a bit of quick homework first.

First off, never buy from an online vendor who doesn’t use HTTPS or a secured connection for their web store. Just look at your browser address bar and make sure the connection to the store is a secured connection. Some fly by night vendors who are trying to separate you from your hard earned money will create a quick website and put a “buy CBD Now” link in place and voila! They’re raking in some quick cash.

Reputable CBD and Hemp vendors like the team at Carolina Hemp Hut take every step possible to ensure that your online order of CBD products is safe and secure and fulfilled with reputable products.

Unless you work in the CBD/Hemp industry as the team at Carolina Hemp Hut does, you’re more likely not going to notice the telltale signs of people trying to slime their way into your wallets. We also know that if you have a bad experience online with the purchase of CBD products (Buy CBD Online), you’re also not likely to try again. This is unfair to reputable and well-trusted vendors such as Carolina Hemp Hut. This is why we love taking the time to investigate the scammers and bring them into the light for everyone to see.

How to investigate whether a CBD Source is reputable

1. Look for the CBD Free Trial
2. Check whether the source is a PO Box, a PMB, or someone’s house
3. Read the Terms and Conditions
4. Check Testimonial links for accuracy or validity
5. Click on “Related Content” links to see if valid results are shown
6. Click on the Privacy Policy to see whether it works and shows valid data
7. Check for Certificate of Analysis links
8. Verify whether site has a phone number to call for support
9. Examine whether CBD vendor makes clearly false or unsupported claims (such as “kills cancer”)

Some Clear Indicators that You’ve found a Scammer

Scammers aren’t going to work too hard to create original content after they’ve already had success with a scam in the past. The typical scammer will regurgitate CBD product content from other campaigns and simply change the name of the product along with the corresponding scammer address (web site and “business address”). They’ll also change a few photos and they’re done. Relaunch the campaign and wait for new suckers to arrive.

Here are some images which are repeated with one group of scammers found on the web.

When searching for CBD and hemp products online (like when you search for “Buy CBD online” or “Buy Hemp online”), you’re going to get a lot of valid CBD vendor sites showing. Take a moment and examine each to ensure that the links you visit don’t have medical claims or “too good to be true” deals. Carolina Hemp Hut has had some super deals before (like we have one now where we are giving away a year’s supply of Hemp Oil Extract/CBD), but they’re typically a giveaway or simple sale that is to reduce or eliminate surplus inventory.

Stores like Carolina Hemp Hut are built around a physical presence like the main store at 137 Mayo Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278. Scammers like to hide behind UPS store mailboxes, PO Boxes, and corporate park offices (where you’re never likely to visit for retail purchases).

“CBD Near Me” is one common search term many people use to find local vendors of CBD. This is a reasonable search which will provide both legit and scam results. For the most part, local SEO and searches tend to provide more legitimate than not. However, the ads that result from the search are often associated with scammers. Most of these are easily avoided if you just look to the SERP (search engine results page) info that is search results only and not the “Ad” results that are also returned.

When you’re looking for a CBD vendor near you, go ahead and investigate the target vendors with their street addresses. Are they in a retail establishment? Are they in a PO Box?

Buying CBD online

We don’t want people to stay away from CBD online. We want people to be careful when they buy it. We’ve written articles in the past regarding COAs (certificates of analysis) and checking up on the quality of CBD products. These resources are good for people to investigate when looking for natural health options such as CBD online. You’ll want to email or call vendors too – just to be sure they respond with good answers and are prompt in their responses. If you call a vendor and all you get after three calls is a voice mail during business hours, you’re likely better off moving to the next search result.

When buying CBD online, it’s a good idea to check on their Google or Yelp or similar review as well. Stores like Carolina Hemp Hut, both physical and online, have reviews on these platforms and more. To check up on the reviews of the online scammers, it’s also easy. Just search for something like “[name of vendor] reviews” in Google or your favorite search engine. For example, here’s LifeStream Labs.

Shopping for CBD

We think that the experience around CBD and Hemp Products should be a pleasure and not a nightmare. With educated consumers working to clean up the slime that occurs with any newly popular industry, we’ll be able to steer through more of the mess and into clean and safe transactions.