subject: Is your internet shopping safe? [print this page] Is your internet shopping safe? Is your internet shopping safe?
If you are anything like me, you do a good portion of your shopping online now. There is a strong appeal to it really. You can take you time and browse through what interests you. There is no waiting in line to check out. I hate being at a store and finally find what I am looking for just to walk up to the front with my purchase and see a long line that means I will be standing there waiting to try and pay for what I want. Then there is the issue of having to put up with fellow shoppers who seem to be very frustrated with the fact that they decided to go shopping at that time. This causes you to be around people who can be quite rude, which ruins your shopping experience. And, you also don't have to worry about what the weather is like when you are at home making your purchases online.
What you do have to worry about though is your safety and security. At least when you go to a store and buy something, you have a much lower chance of someone being able to acquire your financial information. When you are online though, this risk increases exponentially. Let's take a look at some of the things you can do to protect yourself and your financial information while shopping online.
If you are on a wireless network, make sure that your network is password protected.HERE is a good article on how to do so
Do not make your purchases on a network at your place of employment. Beside the fact that you should be working, most companies use software programs that track everything that each user does on their computers. (If there were to be an unscrupulous IT employee with access to that information, you could find yourself as a victim of theft)
Use different passwords for the sites that you will make purchases from than the passwords you use for your email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Because these sites all store your passwords it is just safer to make them different.
Never allow a company or website to "store" your financial information for future purchases. Just enter the information when you need it. This means that subsequent shopping on their site will not be any faster. But it also means that you won't be spending time trying to fight Identity Theft.
Before you begin entering any of your personal or financial information, look at the address bar for the website. There are different protocols that are used for web addresses. The two main ones areHTTP and HTTPS. The "S" on the end stands for Secure. That means that you are on a part of their website that is locked down on the server side and is not easily accessed by hackers. It also shows you that you are on the real site and not a clone site looking to steal your information.
If you are a person who likes to pay your bills online, set as many of them up through your bank's website as you can. Not only does it save you time, but it allows you to pay all of your bills quickly, with one login, and without having to give out any of your financial or banking information. The bank will just send your payments to where they need to go for you. Most, if not all, banks offer this service for free with any type of online banking account. My bank even rewards me each month for paying my bills that way.
Be careful of emails. If you have an Ebay, Paypal, or Amazon account, they will NEVER send you an email telling you to click on a link and enter and verify your login and password. Those links take you to a clone site, like what I mentioned earlier, and send any information you enter back to a database where the thieves will use it to login and empty your Paypal account or buy items online with it.
In conclusion, this is just the beginning of what could be an exhaustive list of ways to protect yourself while still enjoying the benefits of shopping in the comfort of your own home. As long as you take the necessary precautionary steps then you are free to shop away.
