Online Shopping, Keeping It Safe
The online shopping market is a booming one indeed. The value of this online retail market is reckoned now in hundreds of billions of pounds, big, big, bucks for sure. Also for sure, is human nature, and where large amounts of money can be found, there will always be a criminal class around to try for a slice of it.
Cyber-crime, like physical crime, now goes on continually, and as we naturally protect ourselves in our daily lives, so should we when shopping on line.
We carry out safety procedures as second nature, without thinking about them. When you leave your house, you close the windows and lock the door. You lock up your car, hide your pin number at a cash point or terminal, don’t have a purse or wallet on show when walking round a mall or store.
You don’t let your card go out of sight in a restaurant, and much more, all done automatically, and that is how to keep online shopping safe and secure. Common sense and a few quick checks should keep shopping online as hassle free as possible.
Try to stick to store names that you know, the more well known that they are, the more secure their e-store is likely to be. If you find yourself tempted by an unknown site, you can check it out on sites that are dedicated to reviewing e-stores.
If it carries unfavourable reviews, or worse, none at all, then leave it. Also check out the site for simple errors like spelling mistakes, or poor quality graphics, and if it is offering something that is too good to be true, then assume the truth and leave.
If you feel it’s ok to go ahead on a site, before you commit your financial details, check its security by looking in the browser bar at the address, which should start https. If it starts with just http, then it is not secure, the missing S on the end being all important.
It stands for Socket Security Levels, a function which encrypts the information leaving your computer, and only the seller’s server can de-encrypt it as it arrives there.
Always pay using your credit card rather than your debit card. This will give a certain amount of security, by not exposing your personal bank account details online, and it will also give you the cover of section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, if your transaction does not go according to plan.