The holidays are just around the corner, and with them come traditional headaches on what to buy for friends and family. Shops filled with endless queues, lack of time … These factors cause more and more people to decide to make their purchases online.
The convenience of being able to do that from home, at any time, together with the possibility to compare several prices from different sites make shopping online a very attractive method to get rid of the typical holiday stress. But do we know how to purchase online safely?
7 Tips to Buying Online Safely
1. Use a Secure WiFi or Internet Connection
Although it is comfortable and easy to browse and buy through public networks, malls or stores, the truth is that these networks are often unreliable. The information packets transmitted over public connections can be captured easily by hackers and cybercriminals. For this reason, to make purchases or transactions in which you transfer personal information, we recommend that you go through a secure network.
 2. Keep Your Computer Updated and Protected
Online shopping is one of the processes in which more personal and dangerous information is transferred. For that reason, before you start shopping, make sure you have your computer secure, updated and equipped with a good antivirus product.
3. Buy on Known and Reputable Websites
Searching the internet for the best offers can take you to the unknown and unreliable. Stay away from them. Check that the URL of the web site matches where you think it is, and that its address begins with https. Shopping at trusted and reputable websites can avoid becoming a victim of identity theft or data.
4.  Find and Review Privacy and Return Policies
Before buying from an online store, make sure that their Privacy Policy is easily located on the site and up to date. Do you know what to do if your gift is not right? How can you return it? These are also aspects to consider when choosing where to shop.
5. Â Only Share Personal Information that is Necessary and Only on A Secure Form
If it surprises you that they ask you for some personal information (mobile, relatives’ name, place of birth …) to carry out the purchase, do not do it and it check that you are in the correct place. In addition, tools such as the virtual keyboard of Panda Security can avoid data theft if your computer is infected with some virus spyware.
6. Avoid Links in Emails and Ads
Is the offer you just received in an email too good to be true? Then, it probably is. During this time of year, e-mails and ads with offers and big discounts are a tool widely used by cybercriminals. Avoid phishing.
7. Periodically Check Your Credit Card Transactions
After making several purchases online, check that all charges on your account are known and controlled. If you find any suspicious activity, contact your bank, maybe you’ve been a victim of identity theft.
Do you enjoy doing your holiday shopping online?
Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.
19 comments
Interesting article you got there. Slow computers could always be a sign of virus issues. At times, the issue is not as big as you assume because the solution could easily be as simple as defragmenting or disk check. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing and keep it up.
Why not use the new Veryfier app to hire an independent third-party person to go out inspect and check the item before you purchase? It is really important that the inspection should be done by a 3rd party person who will give an honest review and report. Download the app at the Veryfier website or go to iTunes store and install the VeryfierApp.
There is a surprising amount of things that you can do to ensure that you are shopping online safely. One of the big ones that the article brings up is that you should only share personal information when absolutely necessary. Unless you’re in the secure checkout form then you should never be asked for anything like your social security number or credit card number.
great tips¡¡
It’s good to know how to buy things online. I like how you said that you need to look at the return policy. Buying online can make it hard to find the exact right thing, so returns are always a nice thing to be able to do.
A friend of mine recently has been fascinated with anything related to the African culture after visiting that country. Today, she is browsing the net for other products that she can buy online. It appears that it is important to be cautious when buying online. My favorite part is when you talked about checking the transactions on your credit card every now and then to avoid being a victim of identity theft.
It is very important to know the quality and quantity of a certain products. That is why your blogs are useful to this site. Thank you for sharing with us. Good day.
Thanks for reading us!
Kind regards,
Panda Security.
Tips are great, I could add: you should always pay attention to pci dss (http://ipsi.com.au/what-is-…. The standards apply to all organisations that store, process or transmit cardholder data – with guidance for software developers and manufacturers of applications and devices used in those transactions.
Of the things that you said, what got me was your suggestion of updating the antivirus software and making sure that the computer is secured before buying products online. You were right since I am aware that a person needs to give personal details, like name and address when buying online. If that is so, then I will work on upgrading the computer first. After all, I plan on redecorating the house in the near future, and i plan to buy most of the decor online
We are glad you find our information useful!
Thanks for reading us!
Kind regards,
Panda Security.
I appreciated the idea about the return policy and how it should be easily seen in case the person receives the wrong item and would like to return it. That is one of the things that I will surely check once I open up the website. This will actually be the first time that I will buy anything online and it’s for my redecoration project. The privacy policy will be the first thing I will check as I only want to be sure and safe. Thanks.
Very valuable article. It contained content, not fluff. Especially like the guidelines for clearing user history.
Thank you for mentioning that in order to avoid identity theft, I need to shop at trusted and reputable websites with addresses starting with https. I will be sure to keep this in mind as I intend to buy car parts online in the near future. This will be the first time that I will be buying something online, so it helps to see an advice that will help me be careful.
thank you
Thank you so much sir for this information but can you please also tell me that Why are some brands available at a store, but not others?
Thank you for your comment about making sure that you make transactions online through a stable network. I can imagine that for businesses trying to make purchases for things online that this concept is even more important. Being able to keep customers information secure as well as your own is incredibly important for any business.