Safe Online Shopping: Know Your Partner and Don't Expose Yourself

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 11, 2009 -- With basic precautions, busy shoppers can save time and trouble by shopping over the Internet.

Especially when hunting for obscure items or odd sizes, shoppers can find more variety online than they can find in local stores. Unfortunately, the quality of the merchants they encounter online also varies widely. Some may be nationally-advertised retailers with a local presence; others may be fly-by-night scammers.

Unfamiliar websites may even be contagious with malicious software. Just in case, before browsing to unfamiliar websites, shoppers should be sure that their antivirus and firewall software, such as Comodo Internet Security, are up-to-date.

The purchase decision is easy if the item is for sale by a business the shopper already knows and trusts. On the other hand, an unknown and untrusted seller may have a one-of-a-kind item. How can a shopper decide whether to trust the seller and proceed with the sale?

Is the Seller Trustworthy? What Does the Public Say?

Singular items are often sold on auction sites, which offer their own rating systems. Does the seller have a good rating at that site?

If the seller has his or her own website, visual symbols on the site may offer clues: a Better Business Bureau BBBonline symbol, for example, or an online ratings system such as UserTrust.

Good indicators, or the lack of bad ones, can help shoppers decide whether or not to trust an online merchant with their money and their personal information.

How Does the Merchant Protect Personal Information?

Once the shopper decides to buy, he or she enters a screen that asks for the shopper's name or customer number. As soon as that screen opens up, savvy shoppers look in the upper left hand of their browser. Ordinarily the left hand side of the browser address bar says "HTTP." However, at this point it should change. If the business is collecting private information and it accepts credit cards (even if the customer intends to pay via a payment site) the website must change its communications to encrypted or offer a comparable substitute.

Encrypted communications are scrambled so that no one but the shopper and the website can understand them. To show that the communication is encrypted, the browser address bar displays "HTTPS" (for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure). If the browser address bar still says HTTP, shoppers should ask merchants how their information is being protected. Since encryption is the standard protection, shoppers should remain skeptical of any answer they do not understand.

The Sale's Not Over Till the Paperwork's Done

After the heady excitement of the purchase itself comes the less glamorous and equally important aspect of record-keeping. If the item arrives damaged, or does not arrive at all, shoppers will find it difficult to protest unless they kept thorough notes, whether printouts or screen shots, when they contact the merchant. Reputable and trustworthy merchants will work with customers to complete the sale satisfactorily.

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