Protect yourself while buying online
The advantages of shopping online are very rewarding in that you can compare shop to get the most products for your money. There’re also considerable risks involved if you’re not careful with making sure the merchant is legitimate. With the guidelines below, you can secure yourself and have a good shopping experience. Here are some guidelines to protect you and improve your online shopping experience.
Make sure your PC is protected: You can be dealing with legitimate merchant but if your computer is not protected, there is little to no guarantee of security. The best thing you can do is keep your operating system and browser updated. And most importantly, make sure your security software is up-to-date and they are installed correctly.
Knowledge of your merchant: it is always a good idea to know who you do business with. And it is always good and wise idea to do a little research about the merchant that you are going to exchange transactions with. One of the basic searches you can do is type the name in on search engine; add the word “scam” to it to see if there are any reports of such activity. And you can also look for seller ratings. Mostly positive rating is a pretty good sign of a legitimate merchant. It’s your money; you sweat to earn it, now sweat to protect it.
Look for the signs: Look for Trusted BBB signs and verify it’s legit.
Pay with credit: Paying with credit card is your best move. Under the federal law, if you don’t get what you purchase, you can dispute the charges. It makes it easy to follow up scams and frauds.
Privacy information: Know what information is being collected, and how or for what will it be used.
Contact information: Look for contact information. Email or better, phone number
Check your credit records: Make sure you check your credit card records and report any suspicious activity to your credit card company.
Read fine print: Read the fine print and know exactly what you’re purchasing.
If this was helpful to you share it with friends and family. And feel free to add to this list. Let’s help reduce the scam by spreading the knowledge.
November 30, 2009
