Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Is That Website Seal a Seal of Approval or Seal of Fate?

Whenever you visit a website, you’re presented with a lot of information. The LegalNurse.com’s LegalNurse.com website offers by my estimate somewhere around 1,005,402 pages (more or less) of legal nurse consulting information. When you’re shopping to make a decision about an expenditure whether it’s to support your career as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, to buy a CD or book from Amazon.com, a new computer from HP.com or something as simple as a new business blouse from Sears.com for that important attorney-client interview, you’re presented with a dazzling array of “seals” and “trust marks” of quality from different organizations. Some are real, some are genuine and some are not. Some are “sound-a-likes” for other famous brands and more than a few trustmarks are images which have been improperly copied and pasted.

How does the average Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (no such thing since all CLNC^® consultants are above average) tell the difference? Well my CLNC^® amigos, you’ve come to the right place. First of all when you’re faced with a “seal of approval” you have to ask yourself what it means. My favorite seal is the Better Business Bureau or BBB. The BBB has been in the business of protecting consumers almost as long as there have been consumers to protect. (I’d bet that whoever really said “There’s a sucker born every minute.” wasn’t a member of the BBB.)

LegalNurse.com has been a member of the BBB since 2000 and has met the BBB’s online standards since 2002. That says a lot to me. But what do other seals say? Well, it depends on the seal. There are probably more bogus seals out there than there are real seals at the Houston Zoo. Some seal sponsors require that a member pay an upfront amount followed by monthly dues and so long as you’re a dues-paying member, you’re approved. My Sears.com example above is NOT an approved business by the Online Better Business Bureau (which should not be confused with the “genuine” Better Business Bureau also known as the BBBOnline^®.) – See how confusing it can be? As an educated Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you decide.

There are lots of examples of legitimate seals and trust marks out there – Verisign, TRUSTe, McAfee and more. There are also a lot of questionable seals. Don’t take the presence of a seal as a sign of quality. Go to the seal sponsor’s site and see if they rate the company displaying the seal, don’t just click on the seal to see where it takes you. It’s easy to right-click and copy a TRUSTe seal and then paste it into your site. A real seal or trust mark will link back to the site that promulgates it and often to a page dedicated to that merchant.

A site can also get a low rating from the “real” BBB and still obtain seals for Internet security (real or fake). Sophisticated sites can even create a fake BBB or other rating page and post it on their own site. Remember to look at the URL of the link “proclaiming” that A+++ rating. If the URL isn’t linking back to BBB.org or the proper sponsor, it’s not real. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you owe it to yourself to also do an Internet search to learn more about the organization that sponsors the rating. Unfortunately, I’m seeing more and more scam sites out there supporting each other.

For LegalNurse.com and for my own Internet shopping, I’ll keep relying on the “real” Better Business Bureau and not on any phony “seals of approval.”

Keep on Techin’ (and shopping safely),