Online shopping is a trend now and has become exceedingly popular in last one decade. There is countless reason to shop online. You don’t have to go out and endure temperature, dust, rain or even irritating traffic yet you can easily get your desired product from online stores easily.
Now a question arises – is it safe to shop online? Every day you are getting the news of cyber crimes like credit card fraud, malware, ransomware, phishing email, etc. Being safe while shopping online could be a question of safety now.
How do you avoid any such dangerous issue while shopping online without compromising your safety? Let’s get to know ten ways to stay safe while shopping online –
1. Use Well-Recognized Websites
Always go for the well-recognized websites while shopping online. Websites like Amazon, E-bay, etc. they have a reliable defense system to protect their customer privacy. Also, be careful while typing the website address. Because, typing the domain (.com instead of .net) wrong – can bring disaster to your safety very easily.
2. Avoid Clicking on Email Links
You may have noticed that you get many online emails from many online retailers. But are they safe to click and check? Sometimes the link provided in the email leads to a different site which can cause you to hack your information by the cybercriminals.
To avoid such danger, you better go to the official website and check for the offer directly avoiding the link in your email. Sometime when you put the mouse cursor on the link, you might be able to see the actual hidden link below your browser’s window. So, be very careful.
3. Carefully Choose Public Wi-Fi
Think a million times before using a public Wi-Fi network. Carefully choose the one you know you can trust and only if it belongs to a reputed company. Always remember, your safety is in your own hand.
4. Change Your Password on a Regular Basis
Change the passwords of your email address or other frequently used credentials regularly. This can save you from hackers. If you do not like to change your password often, then make sure you create an uncrackable password. And this is more than necessary when you do online shopping a lot.
5. Do Not Ever Think of Saving Personal Information
When you are shopping online, many online retailers offer you to save your information like credit card details on their website to save your valuable time. Don’t make that mistake. If your data is safe and the site fails to protect it, you will be the one responsible for the damage it may bring. Take a little extra time to fill up the information and save yourself from disaster.
6. Mobile App
No need to be afraid of shopping from the mobile app provided by the retailer. You can easily make your purchase from the app and you don’t even have to go to the website directly. Apps are quite safer than the website.
7. Always Read Privacy Policy
Most of the times we skip the hassle by check the box of Term and Privacy out of laziness. Don’t do that if you are an online shopper. You must know what they do with the customer personal information and what measures they take to protect it. If you don’t feel like liking their ways don’t make the purchase at all. That might save you from further any kind of serious trouble.
8. Update Security System of Your Computer
If you do frequent online shopping then you might have a huge chance to get hacked anytime. To avoid such issues keep your computer security system updated. Keep your anti-virus software always updated. If possible buy a paid version of anti-virus that offers features like strong firewall protection, malware protection, etc.
Also, keep your browser always updated. The old version of your browser has loopholes easily can be discovered by cybercriminals.
9. Check Your Back Statement on a Regular Basis
Instead of waiting for the bills to come at the end of the month, you should check your bank statement and keep track of transactions through your online service provided by the bank. This way you will always be updated about your bank account or any unaware transaction.
Besides, use only credit card while purchasing something online. Because the compromise of your Debit card can lead the hackers directly to your bank account which you don’t want to happen even in your nightmare.
10. Safety in Seeing the HTTPS in the URL
There often you will find in some URLs there is HTTPS and in some only HTTP. HTTPS, the extra S means your information going out is safe. So while buying anything online, make sure that you are using the URL only which has HTTPS. Being a little careful minimizes the threat level of losing your valuable information.
Conclusion
It is alluring and irresistible as well to buy stuff online. You are not to blame. From daily busy life going out and buy stuff physically isn’t easy. Buying necessaries online saves quite a lot of time. So, you don’t have to stop rather just being a little cautious can save you from any cyber attack. Hope this article will help you enough to understand how to stay safe when shopping online.
Stay safe and happy shopping…
