Unquestionably, the World Wide Web is not the safest place for exchanging merchandises. In order to have a successful transaction over the internet, both buyers and sellers should take precautions about the possible dangers posed by hackers, scammers, and online frauds. Broadening your knowledge about these possibilities will also hone your defense system against them. With the purpose of spending your hard-earned money on the products that you ordered online, here are some tips and valuable reminders that will help you to have a clean and safe online shopping.
Shop Only at Secured Websites
Do not continue online shopping if the website is not secured at all. So the first tip in having an online transaction is to make sure that the seller’s website is safe and sound. How? There are three ways to determine whether the site is secured. First is if the website address starts with “https://” not with the ordinary “http://”. The additional letter “s” specifies that the site is secured.
The second way is to look on the top-left portion of the address bar if it has a closed padlock icon before the website address. If that padlock icon is open or no padlock at all, you have the right to assume that the site is not secured. Lastly, some site are using an unbroken key icon instead of a padlock, so be sure to look for it also.
Thoroughly Run a Background Check about the Website before Placing an Order
If you are already familiar with the company, skip this tip. But if you are about to make a deal with new and unacquainted companies, you should run a thorough background check about them before attempting to place your orders. To try if they are reliable and trustworthy, start purchasing cheap items before targeting their high-priced items.
Take Time to Read the Website’s Security Policies as well as Privacy Statement
Although you might find that these agreements and policies are long and boring to read, understanding its every word is indeed beneficial for both parties. Once you check the little square button signifying that you understand and agree with the site’s security conditions, the company will assume that you read it. So the fault will be exclusively yours if you do not take time to read it when something went wrong under the agreement.
Reputable companies will automatically provide you with information on how the entire ordering processes will be done. Additionally, sharing of information with their Affiliate Company or third party will only take effect upon your approval.
Erase/Delete Internet Caches and Cookies before Logging-in
For your added protection, make sure to delete internet caches and cookies every time you enter your personal information such as credit card number, account password, etc. This is to prevent online hackers from decoding your written information en route to the merchant’s computer.
Credit Cards Are Not Your Enemies
With regards to online shopping, the safest way to send payment apart from trusted online payment service like PayPal is through credit cards. With this, you can oppose charges once an unauthorized use is proven and withhold payments when credit investigators do their job.
