Tips To Keep Shopping Online Safe
The idea of keeping safe while shopping used to mean keeping an eye out for pick pockets and potential muggers, today, when you go shopping online, the criminals are still lurking, but they are in cyber-space, and it takes a different sort of look out to keep things safe.
When you shop in the world of stores and malls, whenever you engage in a transaction, (buy something), you hand over the right amount, or as close as you easily can get, and you generally scan your change to see that it is about right, and don’t expose the contents of your purse or wallet whist doing it.
These things are just an unconscious habit that you don’t think about, and keeping your financial transactions secure online should become the same, provided you know when, how, and where to go about it.
Shopping online is so easy, and offers a whole new dimension in range, price and products. In the same way, it needs a new way of taking care when you “engage in transactions”.
An awful lot of online security can be achieved with just a healthy dose of common sense, and following a few computer borne checks.
The internet is not a hotbed of villains waiting to pounce on every other shopper, but it is prudent to protect your personal financial details, and your computer, tablet or phone, from hackers and other cyber criminals.
Make sure your computer has up-to-date anti-virus ware. Most update automatically, some need programmes renewing, best to check.
When you shop for goods, try to stick to well-known sites, such as Amazon or Marks and Spencer, as they will have the most up to date and robust online security.
Should you find a site that is new to you, apply a little common sense, is it offering something that is too geed to be true? If that is the case, it probably is too god to be true, and leave it.
Does the site look professional enough? Are there spelling mistakes? Are the graphics sharp and clear? Or is this something knocked up in a thirteen year old boy’s bedroom, or something more devious?
Common sense can help filter through the “market stalls” of the internet to professional retailers. Before you divulge any of your own information, (these days information is money), see if there are reviews about the site from previous customers, that the site has a returns policy that includes a physical address and contact details.
All these things take virtually no time at all, and are just a few little self-help tips to help keep shopping online secure.