Safe Online Shopping Tips For Late Christmas Shoppers

By Coenraad De Beer

Because you are desperate for a gift you will not mind paying a little extra, but the price can be an expensive one to pay if you are not cautious when shopping online. Swindlers always bargain on the mistakes of their victims when they are under pressure. They want to strike when you are not paying attention to the finer details you normally pay attention too when you are not under pressure. The false sense of urgency in phishing attacks and advance fee fraud are examples of swindlers trying to force a victim to make a mistake while he/she is under pressure. With online shopping they bargain that you will not realise that their online shop is a fraud, that their products are fake or that they do not even possess these items. There are a couple of things to look out for when you do your shopping online, not only during the festive seasons, but each time when you transact online.

The very first thing you should do is to verify the legitimacy of the online shop. Make sure that their telephone number, physical address and postal address is valid. Make a phone call to the company and ask about their products. If you are shopping from a local online shop get into your car and visit their premises if possible, or ask a trustworthy person to verify their physical address for you. Write them a letter and request a product brochure. If the telephone number is valid, if you confirmed the physical address of their offices and if they reply to your letter, you will know how to get into touch with them should you have any queries after you made the purchase. If their web site does not supply a valid telephone number, postal and physical address, do not buy from them. If they want to sell products online they should make it easy for consumers to get in touch with them.

Make sure you read their privacy policy and terms of agreement. Read all the instructions and fine print carefully before clicking on the order and pay buttons. You want to make sure that you are familiar with all the procedures of the online shop before you bind yourself legally to a purchase contract. Make sure that you understand the way they calculate shipping and delivery costs, or any extra fees. If in doubt, request a quotation from their sales department. You do not want to get a surprise after you finalised the purchase. Find out if they have a refund policy. If they mess up your order or if you are not satisfied with their products, you want to be certain that you can get your money back.

Before you enter any personal and sensitive information, make sure that you enter this information on a secure web page with a valid SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. You can verify this by looking for a little yellow padlock at the bottom of your browser window. If you double click on this padlock, you can see who issued the certificate and you can verify if the certificate is still valid. Ensure that the address in the address bar start with the letters "https". If they do not provide SSL protection, find another online shop. Any serious and professional online shop will give their customers peace of mind by providing a safe and secure environment where they can collect all the information they need about their customers, without compromising the safety of this information. Never reply to any e-mail requesting financial information. E-mail is very insecure and is not suitable for sending sensitive information over the Internet. A legitimate online shop will have a web site with safety mechanisms in place, protecting your personal and financial information from hackers and swindlers.

Maintain a thorough paper trail. Print every confirmation page, quotation, receipt, order summary and e-mail you receive from the company and remember to set your browser to include the date and time on the printouts to make it easier to see when you printed these documents. Always pay by credit card or a system like PayPal. You should never send the seller any cash. If you pay by cash you leave no paper trail and that makes it impossible to trace the payment or to prove that you already paid for the products. Leaving a proper paper trail makes it possible to trace the transaction back to the seller of the product.

There are many other things you can do stay safe while doing your shopping online. One of the safest ways to follow is to stick with well-known online shops like Amazon. Unfortunately Amazon does not cater for the needs of everyone and you may often find it necessary to buy from other online shops when you are looking for something specific. This is when tips like these come in very handy.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, prevention of online fraud and educating users against online scams and malicious software.