Not a quilter, but married to one which explains my interesting in quilting forums. I have a "techie/business" background and thought you might be interested in what I have learned concerning questionable websites. My comments are general in nature and are not directed at a specific website.
In my experience, if I come across a website that meets all of the following criteria, I avoid them!
1. Only offers a post office box (no physical address)
2. Does not list a phone number (this is a biggie)
3. Only accepts PayPal
Depending on your age run, walk or crawl (me) away as fast as you can!
Additionally, if you do a "Whois" search and you find the site owner's contact information is hidden and the website name is due to expire in a year or less, be careful. If you had a viable online store, wouldn't you want to protect your domain name for more than a year at-a-time? It only cost about $49 to protect your domain name for 5 years!
One cannot say with absolute certainty that all online stores that meet the above criteria are not well intentioned, but research shows the existence of such parameters necessitates extreme caution.
Every month my wife asks me to give the readers of her newsletter a techie tip based on my years of working with Internet related businesses.
If you go to the following link and click on Volume 1 Issue 7 and then click on “Techie Tom Tips” you find more free information that might be helpful in determining the reputation of an online store.
http://www.nancyprince.com/Newsletter_Archives.html
I hope this information helps you avoid frustrating and costly Internet shopping experiences.