Protect Yourself When Shopping Online

By Terry Rigg

There is only one person that is ultimately responsible for your protection from fraud when shopping online. That person is YOU!

When I decided to write this article I was prepared to give you a few tips that I found in my research that would help you when you decided to buy something online. That research produced some amazing results.

Only about 2% or 3% of online orders result in fraud, however, almost all of these could have been prevented by knowing and understanding how to safely shop online. This information is readily available.

As an example, I have a credit card issued by Chase Bank. I went to their web site and typed "Consumer Protection" in their search box. It came back with 14 results on every aspect of protecting their customers from credit card fraud. Most major credit card banks offer similar advice to their customers. It would be a good idea to check your credit card company's web site.

With 71 million members worldwide, PayPal, an Ebay Company, is probably the largest company to offer online payments. They also offer one of the best tools for protecting yourself while shopping online. I would recommend that anyone that shops online, whether using PayPal or not, to download their "E-commerce
Safety Guide" by visiting the below link:

https://www.paypal.com/en_US/pdf/PayPal_Safety.pdf

You can learn even more by visiting their "Security Center" at the below link:

https://www.paypal.com/eBay/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_security-center-outside

We don't want to forget the Federal Trade Commission that is charged with protecting consumers from a variety of consumer problems. I've put together a few links from their website that I believe will help you to be a better informed online consumer:

http://www.ftc.gov/infosecurity/
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/auctions.htm
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

There are a couple of common tips that will make shopping online a lot safer that I would like to list:

~~Never provide your credit card or checking account information when making a purchase online unless the address to that site starts with "https". This shows that the site is on a secure server and provides much better protection of your private information.

~~Take every precaution to verify that the web site offering the product is legitimate. This may be as simple as using their contact information to send them an email and asking questions about the product. If they don't have contact information at their site don't buy from them.

Jim Dimmit, a friend of mine and the author of "Identy Theft - How To Avoid Becoming The Next Victim" and webmaster of the "Your Free Credit Report Now" http://www.yourfreecreditreportnow.com website offers this excellent suggestion:

"When you receive unsolicited email advertisements, never use the special link they provide in the email. Email links are not always safe and these days there's no way for you to know for sure if you are at the retailers site or one that was spoofed in order to get your credit card information. Instead, type in the url address of the site you want, look for the https, and shop online from there."

Buying products has changed dramatically in the last few years. If you buy online you don't have the luxury of looking a salesman in the eye when making your purchase. It is to your benefit to become as informed as possible to protect yourself from fraud.

Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The EasyWay http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage3.html and editor ofthe Budget Stretcher web site. To Subscribe to The FREE BudgetStretcher Newsletter and receive The Complete Budget and BillOrganizer absolutely free just visit his home page athttp://www.homemoneyhelp.com