06:43
Faizan
You need to buy gifts for the holidays and you need to purchase them quickly. You can either brave the madness of shopping at your local mall or kick back at home and buy all your gifts online. Doing your holiday shopping online can be a great way to save time while you find the right gifts at the best price. You'll skip the parking lot wars, avoid getting the flu from your fellow shoppers, and stay out of pick-pockets' crosshairs. But though it may be easy and convenient to shop in your pajamas, you still need to take precautions to make sure your electronic 'purse strings' are safe and secure. Here are some simple tips for safe online shopping:
Secure your computer. Make sure your home computer has updated security software installed, and run regular system check to keep hackers' keylogging viruses away.
ONLY shop from home. Don't do your online shopping from the local café, the airport or other public places. These open networks are easier targets for identity thieves to hack into your computer. Only shop from your secured home network.
Click carefully. Your favorite store just sent you a great coupon! But wait! Before you click on email links, be sure of where they lead. Scam emails can look just like the real ones from your favorite stores, with links that appear to take you to legitimate sites. But hover over the link and you may see a different web address - this could be a fake site, designed to gather your credit card information for fraud. Your safest bet is to manually navigate to your favorite retailer's website.
Know thy merchant. One of best parts of online shopping is easily comparing prices to find a great deal. You may find the gift you want for half the price - but make sure the merchant is reputable and trustworthy. If you haven't done business with a merchant before, look for online reviews. Using aggregators like Amazon.com and Yahoo Shopping is another good way to make sure your merchant doesn't take you for a fraudulent sleigh ride.
Secure your computer. Make sure your home computer has updated security software installed, and run regular system check to keep hackers' keylogging viruses away.
ONLY shop from home. Don't do your online shopping from the local café, the airport or other public places. These open networks are easier targets for identity thieves to hack into your computer. Only shop from your secured home network.
Click carefully. Your favorite store just sent you a great coupon! But wait! Before you click on email links, be sure of where they lead. Scam emails can look just like the real ones from your favorite stores, with links that appear to take you to legitimate sites. But hover over the link and you may see a different web address - this could be a fake site, designed to gather your credit card information for fraud. Your safest bet is to manually navigate to your favorite retailer's website.
Know thy merchant. One of best parts of online shopping is easily comparing prices to find a great deal. You may find the gift you want for half the price - but make sure the merchant is reputable and trustworthy. If you haven't done business with a merchant before, look for online reviews. Using aggregators like Amazon.com and Yahoo Shopping is another good way to make sure your merchant doesn't take you for a fraudulent sleigh ride.
Posted in: internet
