10 ways to shop safely online

With the advancement of technology, shopping has been made so much easier and consumers are now able to access a wide range of shopping options from all over the world. This is all made possible by online shopping.

While it has made shopping so much more convenient, you need to be extra careful. This comes with risks that can have your identity stolen or even worse, your bank account drained.

Here are 10 ways to shop safely online.  

Instead of typing in the search engine to find stores where you can shop, turn to the already established and well known sites such as Amazon. Sites that will be generated by the search engine can be manipulated to lead you to risky sites. Make note that you have the spelling of the original website correctly spelled. Small errors such as .net instead of .com can lead you to a suspicious site. 

Using a credit card to make your online purchases is the safest option in comparison to using checks or cash. This is because the credit company can always refund money if there are any fraudulent charges on the card. Always check your credit card statements regularly to pick on any suspicious activity which you can report to your bank.

Setting and remembering new passwords can be annoying. This however, might be a critical step to maintaining your online security. Change up your passwords every three to six months. This will throw off any hackers that might have been close to accessing your information. Be keen not to use the same password on all your accounts as this will make them all vulnerable if one is hacked.

If you get an email with a link from any website where you’ve shopped before, do not click on the link. Instead, just type in the address to the site in your browser to ensure that you are going to the right site. A lot of phishing scams are from such links that appear to be from a trusted website. They instead send you to a phony site where they are able to access all your information.

Every time you update your browser, the new version usually has boosted security. Older versions of browsers usually have security loopholes that are likely to have already been figured out and exploited by hackers.

Always make sure you give out as little information as possible when shopping online. Be suspicious of stores that ask too much of you. Avoid giving sensitive information such your birthday and your ID number.  This can easily lead to identity theft.

Never purchase anything from a store that has not installed SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption. Any store that has SSL will have HTTPS:// at the start of the URL. Avoid sites with just HTTP://. A site with SSL will also have a padlock displayed next to the URL in the address bar or in the status bar at the bottom of the browser.

Another way swindlers are able to access your sensitive information is by installing malware in your computer. Always make sure your computer is protected from such malware by installing a genuine anti-virus and updating it regularly.

A lot of us hate this part right here but reading a company’s privacy policy is the only way to know who else they are sharing your information with and how they are sharing it. Make sure that it does not allow your information to be sold to third parties and that the information is encrypted and secure.

Using public Wi-Fi when doing your online shopping puts you at a very huge risk of identity theft. Most Wi-Fi hotspots do not encrypt their data meaning that anyone nearby with the right software can hack and access your information. Rather than leave yourself this vulnerable, just wait until you get home where you can use your protected network.