It is too easy for Internet bad guys to set up very realistic looking fake businesses so I buy only from Forum sponsors or if I have to from Ebay sellers who have excellent histories.
And along these lines identity theft is a real thing. Several years ago my wife had hers stolen and it was no fun to straighten up that mess. The best guess was that the bad guys got her data during the Home Depot database break-in. Our credit card company caught it because we had just moved and changed billing addresses. Someone "used" our card and gave the old address. The computer flagged that transaction and they called us.
