Internet Shopping – How Safe Is It?

by E-NewsCast Team
April 9th, 2010

Millions of people make purchases online, but many people arestill wary. They fear the unknown and have many doubts andquestions about who they are dealing with. They are afraid ofbeing scammed, and rightfully so. Online shopping can be acompletely safe and rewarding experience provided you aredealing with a legitimate, reputable retailer. But how do youknow if they are legitimate??? Here lies the “fear of theunknown.”Well, as with anything in life, there are precautions to take,questions you should ask yourself, and signs to look out for.Provided you are careful with who you decide to purchase from,online shopping can be a very convenient and pleasurableexperience. Important Safety Precautions:Take a good look around the website. Make sure you read theirPrivacy Policy. A Privacy policy let’s you know the proceduresand methods they have in place to secure your personalinformation. Find the answers to these questions…Do they shareyour information with others? Some companies sell or distributeyour information to other companies. You may wind up oneverybody’s mailing list. Do they have security measures inplace to protect your information (i.e. SSL)? SSL is theabbreviation for Secured Socket Layer. SSL is security softwarethat encrypts information sent between browsers. What this meansin laymen’s terms is that your personal information such asname, address, credit card number, etc. is coded or scrambled sothat anyone who may try to intercept this information as it isbeing transmitted cannot read it. But don’t just rely on themtelling you that their site is secure, check for yourself. Youwill know when you are in a secure browser by looking at thebottom browser bar on your computer (lower right). If thebrowser is secure, you will see a security lock image. Alsocheck the web address in your top browser bar. Secure webaddresses begin with “https” whereas, non-secure pages beginwith “http.” Setting up accounts with online stores is quite common. However,many people are leary of this because they don’t understand whyit is sometimes necessary. Generally, the only information youare providing is your name, address, email address, andsometimes your phone number. This is all necessary informationthat the store needs in order to ship your order or contact youregarding your order. Setting up an account with the retailerusually provides you with additional benefits such as trackingthe status of your order. On the other hand, if the accountset-up asks for more than just your basic contact information,then you may not want to proceed. You should not be required toprovide your social security number, bank account number, orbirthdate. This information is much more personal and should notbe necessary to have an order shipped. Read the shipping and returns policies before making a purchase.Make sure you feel comfortable with them. Find answers to thesequestions…What is their shipping timeframe? Is it within areasonable amount of time? Will they notify you if it will takelonger than anticipated? What choices will you have if there isa delay in shipping? Do they allow returns? Are thererestrictions on what items you can return and explanations as towhy? Do they make sense?Don’t make huge purchases right off the bat. Make a small, lowcost purchase with the company and consider it a low-risk testof their credibility. This allows the retailer a chance to provethemselves worthy of your business, but limits the monetary riskyou are taking. Should all go well, you can make a largerpurchase in the future with peace of mind, now knowing that thisis a legitimate business.There are many advantages to purchasing online and as long asyou are careful with who you choose to deal with you can reapthe rewards.Here are some of the benefits:Convenience: Why fight the crowds in the stores, especiallyduring the holidays, when you can sit at home on your computerand shop. And price comparisons are just a click away whenshopping on the internet. There’s no need to fight trafficrunning from store to store looking for the “best deal.” You canhave your purchase delivered to your doorstep within a few days.Prices: Online retailers and storefronts purchase their productsfrom the same manufacturers. However, an online retailer doesn’thave the costly overhead that a storefront has (i.e. Leasepayments on the building, heat and electric, and other relatedexpenses). Therefore, the online retailer doesn’t have to markupthe price as high as the storefront in order to make the sameprofit. So you, the consumer, come out the winner!Store Hours: Online retailers are open 24 hours a day, 7 days aweek. Shop at your convenience.So as long as you take some simple precautions, shopping onlinecan be a very pleasurable, time saving and money savingexperience.

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