This year due to covid-19, retail shopping has been greatly reduced and most people around the world are turning to online shopping.
The Internet has made it simple and seamless to visit an ecommerce online store, browse through the products, add one or two products of your choice to a shopping cart, and click to buy.
But Shopping Online has its own cons too. The problem of all issue is its security concerns.
Many countries have already reported cases of online shopping scams and most of these cases come with huge financial loss who getting ripped off by get-rich-quick swindlers
So therefore, it is especially important to take steps to protect yourself when shopping online.
HTTPS means any site you enter, your Information (username and password, financial or credit card details) will be encrypted and protected from interception or eavesdropping by malicious parties. So therefore, get out of the site if you enter HTTP.
When shopping online it’s best to stick to credit cards or payment gateway like PayPal. Because debit cards are linked to your bank account, you are at much higher risk if someone can hack your information. Credit cards offer more protection if a card number gets stolen. When a fraudulent transaction is found, most credit card institution will immediately reverse the charge and investigate. If you use your debit card and found to be fraudulent charge, your bank may not give you the money back until after an investigation is conducted, which could take weeks or months.
Did You ever come across an internet offer for a free 30 days trial of some amazing product, usually a weight-loss program? All you need to pay is $5.95 for shipping and handling.
What’s really going on in fine print, often in a light color, are terms that obligate you to pay $59 to $89 a month for subscription fee, Forever.
How to avoid: Read the fine print on terms and conditions, and do not believe every testimonial. Check https://tineye.com, a search engine that crawl the web for identical photos. If that same weight-loss woman smiling and shows up promoting different products, you can be certain her ‘testimonial’ is bogus. Reputable companies will allow you to cancel, but if you cannot get out of a ‘contract’, appeal to your credit card company to cancel and change a new card, then negotiate a refund.
Fake online shopping sites that promote offers that are just too good to be true. Let’s say if you are shopping for an Latest iPad tablet that’s within the range of $850 to $1400 and you come across an e-commerce store that boasts the low price of only $250, then that’s an example of ‘ too good to be true offer’. Stay clear of it. The people behind the site just want to separate you from your hard-earned money.
You are always asked to create an account with a password when making a purchase. Usually, you can choose not to do this or unless you are using the e-store frequently. If you do want to make an account, I suggest a strong and unique password.
Christmas Seasons or holidays are a great time for email scammers to send out malware in the guise of a gift or special sale offer. Do not open emails from someone you do not know or a site you have not visited. Another way the bad wolf tries to get you with phony messages from your bank or other financial institution saying there is an alert or problem with your account. Always call the bank directly to verify any potential problems and never enter your account information in response to an email like this.
Download shopping apps only from a reliable source like the Apple App Store or Android Market. Pay attention to the permissions that the app asks for. If you notice something that does not make sense, like access to your contacts, please do not allow the app to have access to it. Review the permissions required for installation. If the permission seems excessive for what the app is supposed to do it could be malicious.
Maintain security features – do not remove or disable the security features on your smartphone or tablet. They are there to protect you and should be maintained.
It is not cyber safe to use public Wi-Fi to shop online and make purchase. Instead use your mobile phone as Hotspot or VPN.
