Online shopping is an exciting experience as you can get access to a gigantic number of offers and easily choose the one with the best price. In addition to it, you can also pick from a way greater variety of goods than the one available in the land-based shops. Still, online shopping is requiring particular attention from customers who might get overexcited and oversee crucial things which can make it easier for scammers to steal their money or personal information.
How to prepare for online shopping?
It will be very useful for you to make certain preparations for online shopping which will minimise the probability of losing your money.
First of all, it is advised to resign from using your social network accounts for creating a customer account in a particular online shop. This is necessary since scammers will be able to see your personal information you are sharing through your social networks.
For the purpose of creating your customer account, it is recommended to create a separate email address. It is especially crucial not to use the email address connected to online banking or the one you are using for exchanging personal information. In such a way, you will be able to protect your data in case the online shop you have registered in is attacked by any chance.
Pay your attention to the password you are going to use for your customer account. It will be sensible to create a unique password which you have not been using for logging into any other services. If you find it difficult to memorise all of your passwords, use special password managers.
Finally, it is advised to make some financial preparations as well such as creating a separate online wallet for money transactions. Do not keep too much money in that wallet in case if scammers will get access to it. In such a way, you will be able to minimise your financial losses.
Be careful about online shops
Certainly, it will be logical to look through the review of online shops especially if you would like to purchase something in a less known place.
Be attentive to the address of an online shop. Check whether there is https rather than http in the address. The first one means the protocol offering secure connection. In addition to it, it is recommended to write all the addresses of online shops manually rather than copying them and pasting them. In such a way you will notice if there is some strange element in the name which, in all likelihood, is a signal of the online service just pretending to be another popular online shop.
When it comes to the shopping process itself, it is highly recommended not to pay for the goods in advance. It will be safer for you to pay the money when the goods are already delivered and you can see whether everything is fine with them.
All documents about the transactions and purchases should be saved in case you might be willing to return the goods back to the shop. Save all of the documents in all of the forms they were sent to you, both paper ones and electronic ones.