Safe online shopping tips

Online shopping comes with many advantages. Perhaps you like the wider range of options online, or maybe you like being able to send a gift straight to a loved one’s doorstep (or your own, treat yourself!). With online shopping, however, comes the potential threat of security risks. Luckily, learning some secure online shopping tips could help you protect your identity and payment information from fraudsters.

Is online shopping safe?

In this day and age, merchants generally take quite a few precautions to keep shoppers safe. A tell-tale sign that a website is secure is in their web address. If the address starts with “https,” then it’s generally secure. You may be used to seeing the standard “http,” which stands for hypertext transfer protocol. The extra “s” in “https” stands for “secure,” and it indicates that a particular website is using a secure sockets layer (SSL). This encrypts communications between the client and the server. If a website uses “http” without the “s,” it isn’t using that security measure.

You can also generally find the merchant’s privacy policy on their website, which will tell you what they will or won’t do with your information.

Despite the steps merchants take, however, there are still some potential risks to shopping online. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to help you have a safe and secure online shopping experience.

Online shopping safety tips

If you shop online, consider these tips to better protect yourself:

• Use a private device: Public devices, such as those found at a library, may save login or payment information. This could leave you vulnerable to whoever uses the computer next. Additionally, there may be spyware on the computer that could record your activity and gain access to your accounts. Using your own, secure personal device is a safer option to avoid these scenarios.
• Use a private connection: Similarly to public devices, public Wi-Fi networks could also provide a gateway for stolen information. If you tend to use public Wi-Fi often, you may want to consider subscribing to a virtual private network (VPN). This will encrypt your activity even when using a public network.
• Don’t click on suspicious links: Phishing schemes are one of the biggest threats to online shoppers. As they become more sophisticated, they can send phishing emails that look like they came from a recognizable merchant. If you get an email advertising a sale, go directly to the merchant’s website to check, rather than clicking on the link in your email.
• Pay through a third party: There are multiple legitimate third parties that you can use to pay a merchant. These payment services generally work one of two ways. One way is to create a one-time virtual account number for each purchase instead of storing your credit card information and using that to pay. The other is to act as an intermediary, allowing you to create a user account with the merchant and pay them through your stored account details.
• Set up credit card alerts: Use your card’s security features to help keep yourself safe. Two-factor authentication can help block anyone who gets your credit card information from using it, and setting up alerts for online purchases may alert you to any fraudulent purchases made using your card information.
• Keep your software up-to-date: Make sure your firewalls, anti-virus software, browsers and apps are all updated to the latest versions to ensure the latest identity theft and fraud protections. Additionally, consider updating your passwords regularly and make sure they’re unique to each account.

What to do if you are victim of fraud

Even if you take all the precautions above to enjoy safe and secure online shopping, there’s a chance you might still find yourself the victim of fraud. If you realize you’ve been the victim of fraud, there are some steps you can take:

• Contact your credit card issuer as soon as possible to report the fraud.
• Check your credit card accounts and change all your passwords.
• Notify the credit bureaus.
• Continue to monitor your credit card statements and credit report.
• Check your online shopping accounts and remove the compromised card from any account that has it saved as a form of payment.

In summary

How secure is online shopping? As we’ve seen, it is typically a secure method of commerce with standards in place to help keep shoppers safe. However, there are secure online shopping tips that can help make you even safer. Whenever possible, it’s best to try and use private devices and Wi-Fi networks, stay vigilant and consider using third-party services to make your payments more secure. If you do become a victim of fraud, it helps to know what steps to take to minimize your risk.