Is Shopping Online Safe?

This is the million dollar question: Is shopping online safe? For the most part, it is. However there are times when, through no fault of your own, someone either hacks into your system or obtains your credit card through other means.

Here is one example: A woman used one credit card to purchase an item from a very familiar website. The company had her credit card on file. Thus, all she had to do was enter her password, and the amount was charged to her credit card. Unfortunately, a notice appeared stating that “there is something wrong with your credit card and you should call your company”.

To make a long story short, someone from this company accessed her account while she was online and used her card to make a purchase from another website. Her credit card company called her to notify her of this transaction and immediately canceled her account and proceeded to issue a new card.

While this incident was caught in time, there are other individuals who have been the victim of identity theft online and were not made aware of it until some time later. Thus, hundreds of dollars were spent before the victim was notified by the credit card company.

Most credit card companies have a fraud protection service, and it is important that you sign up for this service regardless of the price. Having this service gives you the added protection you need and allows you to shop online with minimal concern.

But, there are times when even the most sophisticated security software cannot keep a hacker from accessing your personal information. This is why it is vital to shop only on those sites that offer encryption protection. In fact, most well-known websites explain their security practices. It’s a good idea to check to determine if they have this service.

When you are shopping online, there is no website that would ever ask for your social security number. Therefore, never give it out to anyone.

In addition, when you do use your credit card online to make a purchase, you become heir apparent to other websites which offer similar items. This is analogous to buying an item through a mail order company. Soon after, you will be receiving dozens of books from other similar mail order companies as well.

Remember when Ivory Soap was advertised as 99.9% pure? Well, shopping online is just as safe – but that .1% is always lurking in the background.

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