7 Tips to Stay Safe While Shopping Online

7 Tips to Stay Safe While Shopping Online

Online shopping and online stores are increasing popularly since social media networking platforms have been created. This is one of the best benefits that we can experience from using the Internet. Nowadays, you can’t call one business a business if they do not have a website or a Facebook page at least. Shopping in the comfort of our bedroom while facing our computers can be a good idea during holidays when you have to fall in line just to pay for what you would like to purchase in a mall or a grocery store. Since online shopping is probably the star when it comes to technology and transactions that involves money, hackers are now setting their eyes on them. Aside from hacking ATM machines, their next option is to hack people’s accounts and get their money to transfer anonymously to their personal accounts and withdraw it as fast as they can.
If you love to shop online you need these eight tips for you to stay safe while shopping online.

Use familiar websites for shopping online.

Make sure to check first the website that you’re browsing. The oldest trick in the books that these scammers do is to change some spellings but you cannot easily notice it if you’re not paying attention. Instead of using .com, they will be using .net of anything but still related to that well-known website that you want to shop in. Search the website on the search engine like Google.

Check for the lock.

Forget about shopping online using your credit cards on the websites which doesn’t use SSL or social socket layers. If it never let you to use https, forget it.

They do not need other personal information.

Never give your social security number, passport number or anything which is not related to your shopping transactions. They do not need those things from you if they are legal and not into scamming.

Always check your billing statements.

It may be an additional task for you but checking your billing statements before it comes during its monthly schedule can be better than waiting and be shocked with unknown charges that you have to settle. Every time you shop online, make sure to take note all the expenses and charges that you’ve made because in case of unknown charges may occur, you can give your bank a call and report it immediately so that they can take actions regarding it.

Install anti-virus to your computer.

To make sure that you’re safe online while using your own computer, install an antivirus so that you’re safe from those viruses that a certain website has. Scammers and hackers usually make viruses to gather your personal information online.

Use strong passwords while creating an account.

Create strong passwords every time that you need to create an online account or even on your other social media accounts. Make sure to update them regularly. Try mixing uppercase to lowercase numbers and letters. If you can, you can add special characters to it. While keeping these complicated passwords in mind can be a bit difficult for you, you can always use password managers so that you will be able to manage each of them while keeping your accounts secured.

Use a VPN when connecting to Wi-Fi

Never shop online using public wifi hotspots if you don’t want to get hacked and traced. Make sure that you’re using a vpn service every time that you go online especially when making online transactions. Learn to discipline yourself in order for you to keep your Internet privacy and online privacy. In this world today that we live in, hackers are getting professional and smarter than ordinary people but if you practice being careful in everything you do, then less probability that you’ll suffer from different cybercrimes.

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