Occupational Health and Safety » Online Shopping - Safety, Privacy, and Benefits!
Online Shopping - Safety, Privacy, and Benefits!
Holidays or not, online shopping is fast becoming the main
shopping choice for many people. People prefer online stores for
their shopping needs over the brick-and-mortar stores for a
variety of reasons - discounted price, quick price comparisons,
unavailability of desired items in the retail stores, 24 hours
shopping convenience, etc. Whatever the reason is, before you
jump into the online shopping bandwagon, you must consider a few
things to avoid frustration and monetary loss.
Before you pull out your credit card to buy an item at an
unbelievably reduced price, think about the reasons why the
merchant is throwing out his profits. Maybe it is a total scam
and they want your credit card number to rip you off. Stay with
the big online shopping sites. Sites that are publicly traded or
reputable private companies do not spam your email inbox with
unsolicited advertisements. If you find a shopping site,
advertised in a spam e-mail, that sells $100 software for $10,
you can bet that it is a scammer's site.
Ask your friends about their experiences with online shopping
sites to select sites that are worthy of your hard earned money.
Another approach is to use a search engine like Google to search
for items you plan to purchase. When you use Google to search
for an item, you will get advertised and non-advertised sites
offering your items at different prices. Check out a few sites
before you decide to make a purchase.
Many sites like bizrate.com or nexttag.com offers price
comparisons, reviews, and shopping site ratings. Use these sites
to read reviews and to do a price comparisons. Sites like
techbargains.com publishes information on latest bargains,
coupons, and discounts offered by various online shopping sites.
Monitoring this type of sites provides opportunities to get
great bargains. One comparison shopping site,
buysafeshopping.com, provides information on qualified shopping
sites that have gone through a screening process for merchant's
identity, online sales experience, and the ability to deliver
purchased items.
If you have to shop with an unknown online merchant, check for
their telephone number at their Web site. Contact someone at the
merchant's physical location and talk to them. Ask them about
their privacy and refund policy. If you cannot find a phone
number or the phone number goes to a voice mail, instead to a
live person, go shopping somewhere else. There are dozens, if
not hundreds, good online merchants for any items you want to
buy.
At the online checkout counter, you have to use a credit card to
pay. When you use your credit card, make sure that your credit
card and personal information are sent using encryption to avoid
someone intercepting your information for unauthorized use. To
check for encryption, look for https in the URL. It is perfectly
safe if the site has http in its URL for all pages except the
order page - the page where you enter your credit card and other
personal information like address, etc. Even if a site is
encrypted, it can still be a scammer's site. Look out for
tale-tell signs like numbers at the beginning of the URL. Avoid
public computers at cafes, airports, etc. for your purchases.
The danger is that hackers can install key-loggers to log your
key presses before they are encrypted.
Always use a credit card to pay for your online purchases. Most
credit cards have online purchase protection. If something goes
wrong, you can always call your credit card company and dispute
the charge. You do not have to pay for your disputed charges
till the dispute is resolved. Federal laws limit your liability
to $50 in charges should someone uses your card fraudulently.
Never use a debit card. Debit cards pull money from your bank
account as soon as the transaction is made. If you are ripped
off, it may take months before you get your money back, if you
ever see it again.
Despite all the cautionary warnings, online shopping is safer
than shopping offline. You do not have to take a shower, dress
up, drive and mingle with other shoppers and touch anything in
the store for online shopping. How safe can it be? If you are
careful, you can guard yourself against identity and credit card
thefts by following safety tips discussed above. When you are
using a credit card in an offline venue, there is a person, such
as the sales person, who processes the transaction and this
person can also see your private information. In online
transactions, the middle man is eliminated. If you do your
research, watch for signs of fraud and only use credit cards for
your purchases, online shopping provides more benefits over
offline shopping.
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