How do I verify the reliability of a sex shop
Verifying a website is quick and easy to do. Go through the following points and you can quickly determine for yourself whether the company you plan to buy from can be trusted.
Always check the following points to make sure that your purchase meets your expectations and that you will not be scammed.
If something goes wrong, you want to be assisted, be able to point to someone responsible, or visit somewhere to resolve the problem.
Check the company details
In the terms and conditions, an about us page, contact page, or another page, you should always find the following information.
- Valid Dutch address
- KVK number
- Email and/or phone number
If you cannot find any information at all, you do not really need to check the rest; this party cannot be trusted.
Beware of fake information
You may sometimes come across a website that lists all the above information. It is then important to compare the information and investigate further. You do this by asking yourself the following questions.
- Is the contact address on the website the same as the KVK address?
- Has the KVK address been "stolen" from another website? In other words, does the KVK industry match the webshop in question?
- Is the (visiting) address a legitimate address, and not, for example, an empty building, sports center, or shopping center?
- In short, if something goes wrong, can you go to a location where staff are available to help you? We sometimes see addresses being used that do not exist, or a sports center or shopping center with a generic name being used.
- Can you call the phone number, or do you always get an answering machine?
If one or more parts of this series are incorrect or the information does not match, you may be dealing with a foreign seller that is not registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce or does not have a business at all.
It may be that the seller or owner of the webshop lives in China and displays incorrect information. Then it becomes difficult to seek recourse if you are scammed or dissatisfied.
The reason why sex doll or masturbator webshops get away with this is that people often feel ashamed when they are scammed. Reporting internet fraud to the police when it involves the purchase of a sex doll or large sextoy is a taboo for many, meaning scammers often hear little or nothing from the victim. In addition, little or nothing is often done about it.
Check the shipping and return policies
The owner of a Dutch company must always comply with Dutch law. If the terms and conditions state that a website has a return period of only two days, Dutch law always overrides this rule. Under the law, a return period of less than 14 days is not permitted.
You always have a minimum return period of 14 days from the moment of delivery. If a website uses a shorter return period, you are probably dealing with a scammer or someone trying to circumvent Dutch law.
Products may be returned if they are in their original condition. Hygiene-sensitive products such as sex dolls are more nuanced: if you keep the sealed packaging intact, the product may be returned; only once the sealed packaging has been opened may the product be excluded from returns.
A foreign shipment, import taxes, and surcharges
If a shipping period of more than 3 days is stated, the products are probably shipped to the Netherlands from abroad. Sometimes this may be Germany, Poland, or another EU country. However, for shipments taking 10-14 days, there is a high chance that the country of shipment is outside Europe.
Please note that after placing your order, you may have to pay additional taxes or import costs because you are importing goods from abroad. This can amount to 50% of the order value.
Suppose you buy goods worth 300 euros from abroad, for example China or America. Import duties, taxes, and surcharges could add another 150 euros. This percentage depends on the country from which the goods are shipped.
Check the domain and the web shop owner
It may be that you can no longer find an address, Chamber of Commerce number, or telephone number. If you only discover after your purchase that you have been scammed, you can still uncover the identity of the web shop owner this way.
Go to https://who.is/ to find out who owns a website. You will often find a postal address, name, email address, or other details about the owner.
The owner may have set up the website through a provider, in which case the provider's information is often displayed. Even so, you may be able to find traces of the owner's identity.
Examples of providers include Shopify or GoDaddy. They provide website hosting. Shopify's or GoDaddy's address is not the same as the website owner's address.
If who.is does not provide useful information, you can look for other options or use Google to search for domain lookup software. Other websites for checking the domain owner's identity include.
- https://www.godaddy.com/nl/whois
- https://lookup.icann.org/en
For a quick scan, you can use the following websites. Please note: they do not always check the website's reliability or origin equally thoroughly.
- https://fraud-detector.nl/
- https://www.scamadviser.com/
If you see information indicating that the website owner is based abroad, for example in China, be aware that it may not be as easy to contact them if something goes wrong with your purchase.
Reviews of a sex doll webshop
Reviews of a webshop are a good general indicator of whether the website can be trusted. Check all the places where reviews about the website can be found, such as Google Reviews, Trustpilot reviews, Klantenvertellen, or Tweakers, and use them to determine the average score.
If the website scores an average of 8 on a scale of 10, you can assume that your purchase and experience will also be an 8 out of 10.
Integrity of the reviews
Sometimes websites have few reviews, making the score unreliable, and you should not let this score influence you. Six reviews do not make the score significantly reliable and also show that the website has not been around for very long. Whether these are six very good or very bad reviews. From 30-50 genuine reviews onward, you can trust that they reflect reality well.
Purchased (or self-written) reviews are unfortunately also a possibility. Buying reviews is often cheap, easy, and quick - just google it. There are plenty of websites where you can buy reviews and pretend that you have many satisfied customers or that everyone is satisfied.
If the webshop claims to have thousands of reviews but they cannot be found anywhere, or tens of thousands of customers but only 18 reviews, you know that something is not right.
At the moment, Monica Moments has 108 reviews from 5,000+ customers, so you have some idea of what a realistic ratio is. Since sex toy webshops receive reviews less often due to discretion, the ratio of reviews to customers is somewhat lower than with other websites that sell, for example, furniture.
View the products
Take a look at the products the website sells and see what your impression is. Are the images informative, clear, detailed, and easy to understand? Do the photos match, or does it look like different products are shown in the photos? Is there enough information about the materials, dimensions and weight, how to use the product, and perhaps videos or other essential information?
Quality and warranties
If the website does not offer a quality guarantee or manufacturer's warranty, or is unclear about this, those are often already red flags. However, this is a difficult factor to assess, because if a website promises 12 months' warranty but is ultimately unreachable for service or repairs because it does not have a valid Chamber of Commerce registration, there is no way to claim that warranty.
In short, if they offer a warranty, can you also hold them accountable when the time comes? Or do they stop responding?
View the social media
Nowadays, a company is nothing without its social media, so check how active they are on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, or other channels. Do they have little to show on social media, few followers, or no extensive history of photos or videos online? Then this means the website may not be very reliable, or they may not have been around for very long. Think of their social media as a kind of diary in which they show what they do and what they have.
Collaborations
Online collaborations with models or other influencers are often a sign of reliability, as models put their own image at stake when collaborating with an unreliable party. Consider collaborations a sign of reliability, but don't let them be the deciding factor.
Be aware that AI-generated and computer-generated photos are becoming increasingly realistic; this can also affect the profile and make it seem as though collaborations exist.
AI can make models and influencers look so realistic that you might think the woman below is real, but she was AI-generated.
Check their expertise
Does the website demonstrate the knowledge they have? Do they have a knowledge base or blog section covering multiple aspects based on their own experience with sex dolls or toys? Then you know they have experience with the products and know what they are talking about.
Advertising and ads
There is a misconception about this. The fact that a website advertises does not automatically mean it can be trusted; anyone can buy ads or advertising. Advertising does not equal reliability.
What feeling does the sex doll website evoke?
Look at the website and scroll through it. What feeling does the website evoke? Do you feel confident, or are you trying to look for signs of trust because you don't actually trust it? After checking all the points above, try to determine for yourself whether you can safely make a purchase.
The last thing you want is to be scammed or receive a sex doll that doesn't match the photos on the website.
Do they use other strange practices in their return policy, such as withholding 10% of the purchase price for cancellations due to transaction fees?
Then you should definitely be careful when ordering. Pay close attention and review the website's policies (shipping, returns, refunds, etc.) and procedures, and you'll quickly know whether it can be trusted.
Need help checking?
Still unsure after checking all the points above whether the website can be trusted? Send us the details and we'll check it for you.
