Design Research
So many commercial companies on the internet can appaer as safe and trustworthy as our local shops, but where you have no experience or knowledge, do some research before you hand over any money to them. Maybe you are about to hire a custom designs, or a technical consultant, but first run a simple google query, to make sure you have as much info as possible which may help you find testimonials or bad reviews of the designer before parting with your cash. This applies to anybody and online you can even run background checks and reverse phone lookup searches to discover even more about someone. It can be worth doing such searches because there are so many scammers and rippoff artists around these days, especially when you are trying to buy something online.