On the topic of honesty, I found some information on ehow.com about what to do to determine whether a website is honest. Just thought this might be useful information so you know what your customers might be looking for on your website.

The site ehow.com instructs consumers to:

1. Go to BBB.org to check Better Business Bureau records on the company. Doing a webite search for whatever site you are researching will turn up a history of complaints, if they exist.

2. Look for a Verisign, McAfee or other logo from a web security firm on the site that verifies the site is checked on a regular basis for viruses and threats to customer information.

3. Purchase an antivirus and firewall–or similar service. The program integrates with your browser to notify you if a site is questionable. If the site has a history of unsafe downloads or information theft, there will be a red link at the bottom of the browser. The link will be green if the site is safe and honest.

4. Check the site’s privacy policy and terms and condition to see what will happen to personal information. If the site does not have a terms and conditions or privacy policy, this may be an indication that it is questionable.

5. Do a general web search for the company’s url. The search will turn up instances where anyone posted information about the site. Also do a search for the site’s name plus the word “scam”. This will turn up specific complaints about the company being dishonest to customers.

6. Go to ConsumerReports.com, Complaints.com, ConsumerAffairs.com, RipOffReport.com or a similar site to see if a page regarding the site has been established. The company is also given an opportunity to rebut.

Knowing that some customers will check you out more than others, gives you an opportunity to prepare yourself to do anything you can to establish trust and security of your website.