When you start shopping online, you will be quite excited by the sheer variety and quality of goods that are open to you. There is plenty to see and most of it can be brought directly to your door. Just remember though, that shopping online is still a comparatively new thing and because it is such, there are a few precautions that it would be wise to take. This won't hamper your ability to buy things from most sites, but it never hurts to be careful!
The first thing to remember is that if you recognize the name of the company, you're probably in good hands. This being said some shops online you will not of heard of as they operate purely online. This enables them to keep costs down and pass the savings on to you the consumer. If the place that your buying from has a physical store location, they'll have a lot invested in making sure that your information remains secure and that you won't have cause to regret buying from their company. If they operate only online then check to see if they have customer service numbers displayed. This way you will know if you do get a problem you will be able to call them direct instead of being restricted to email communication. This can get very annoying if you need to chase information on delivery or in the unlikely event that you have a problem with your purchase.
Similarly, you should look for secured pages. When you go to enter your credit card information into the fields, check to make sure that the "http" in the URL has turned into an "https." Another helpful hint involves looking for the lock symbol to appear in the upper left hand corner. This shows that you have hit a secure, encrypted page and that your information will not be visible to just anyone who logs in. A secure page is one that can only be accessed by someone inside the company itself. Also, seeing only numbers at the beginning of URL is also a sign that you may be a scammer's site, even if you see the lock. When in doubt, check into the reputation of the company.
Where you login can also affect the safety of your purchase. When you are getting ready to pay, don't use a shared computer, whether it is at work or at a computer center or cafe. Remember that none of the information that you put onto a public computer should be considered "safe."
When you come to the place where you decide how to pay, remember that the safest method of payment will always be the credit card. Credit cards have better tracking than other forms of payment and payments can be stopped if necessary. Debit cards will withdraw money directly from your account and that money may not be recoverable if worst comes to worst.
Remember that most of these precautions are not necessary under most circumstances. Online shopping is very safe, but you should always be safe rather than sorry!
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