Guide to Safer Internet Shopping by Notjusttaps
Whilst you will hear of shoddy suppliers and shady internet retailers, there are a lot of simple common sense rules and checks you can follow to ensure you have a safer, more secure purchasing experience:
Know your supplier
Does the website show a valid postal address and phone number? If you can't easily find them, ask yourself why not!
Check whether they have been established a reasonable amount of time. You can do this by making a 'whois' enquiry on the internet to find out how long the website has been established
Can you easily contact them by phone during normal working hours? Any good company should be easily contactable!
Use a safe payment method
Remember that paying by credit card provides more protection than other methods.
It is safer to make a card payment by secure online server (see paragraph below) rather than giving card details over the phone. If you must give details over the phone it should only be to a known and trusted company.
Never send cash!
Check that the payment processing system is secure
When you reach the payment or checkout section, the page should change to a secure page. You can tell it is secure if the start of the address changes from 'http:' to 'https:' You should also see a padlock symbol on the right hand side of the browser bar. These both mean that the page is secure. If you don't see this beware as your information is not secure
Do not divulge personal information
You only should be providing relevant information to make your purchase (name, address and contact details)
Never give other personal information such as bank details
If it's too good to be true...
If the product being offered seems too good to be true, be careful as it might not be the bargain you expected.
Take customer testimonials with a pinch of salt.
Recommended Advice
For more advice and suggestions take a look at Google's blog on online security. You can find it by clicking this link:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-avoid-getting-hooked.html
And Finally...
Make sure you have up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware running on your computer. They won't stop you making a bad purchase but they will reduce the risk of your computer and your personal information being compromised by rogue sites
We hope this guide has been helpful, if you have any tips to add to our guide please e-mail us with your suggestions to: salesinfo@notjusttaps.co.uk
Happy Shopping!