Savvy Online Shopping

Savvy Online Shopping

The majority of people in Britain now use the internet. Many of its uses involve financial transactions.

The sum of financial transactions runs to many billions of pounds, but what about your shopping over the internet, surely the tiny amounts, by comparison, would not attract the interest of criminals?

Oh yes they do. The criminals attempting multimillion pound heists from banks and companies, use similar online techniques to those who would target the everyday ordinary shopper.

Virtually anything connected to the internet attract scammers and cybercriminals, and daunting as they sound, although there is no 100% safety guarantee for anyone, some basic self-security can go a long away to prevent trouble.

Little things can mean a lot to keep safe online, you don’t have to wade through great sheaves of security processes each time you make a transaction, just a few simple observations and a few routine precautions.

Firstly, make sure your computer has up-to-date security software, with the latest anti-virus and anti-spyware within its package.

Always keep up strong passwords, with a mix of upper and lower case letters interspaced with numbers.

Be alert to phishing, receiving emails that seem out of the ordinary, probably are, through good reason. Your bank would never ask for your details to be put in email, so never do it.

Should you be tempted to make a purchase from a site that you’re not familiar with, try to find some reviews about them, and just check that they have a physical address also.

Other things to check, which take virtually no time at all, are a returns policy, any delivery information, and possibly a contact number.

When you click to buy and go to their secure page, check that the site address in the browser bar changes http:/ to https:/. The S is important.

It denotes whether or not the site has something called Secure Sockets Layer, which means that your credit card information leaves your computer encrypted, and can only be decrypted by the sellers computer.

It is prudent not to use sites without this security protocol. Another indication of security is a symbol of a padlock also in the browser address window, the padlock should appear closed.

Similarly the symbol of an unbroken key in the same place denotes security.

The same consumer rights that protect you in real-time shopping should also apply online. The description of the goods should meet the expectation of the merchandise.

If not, or the goods are faulty, you are entitled to a full refund provided the goods are returned within 30 days.