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Top 12 Best Tips for Secure Online Shopping

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Peter
Top 12 Best Tips for Secure Online Shopping

Every year, online shoppers spend billions of dollars. The security on those purchases is not a given, regardless of the fact that most transactions will be smooth.


Keep calm. The statistics may seem alarming, but you should not stop Online Shopping in Pakistan. You simply need to be practical and follow common sense. To help you, here are a few guidelines.

Use familiar websites

Trusted sites are the best place to start. When you navigate beyond the first few links in search results, you may be led astray. Knowing the site can reduce the likelihood of it being a rip-off. As we all know, Amazon.com carries virtually everything under the sun; in addition to Amazon.com, Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot all have online stores. A website with a misspelled URL or a domain that is not in the standard .com extension is the oldest trick in the book.

Look for the lock (password)

At the very least, never use your credit card to purchase anything online from a site that does not use SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption.

Instead of HTTP, an SSL-encrypted site will begin its URL with HTTPS instead of HTTP. If you are using a web browser, you will see an icon of a padlock to the left of the URL in the address bar or with the status bar below; this will vary from browser to browser. Now even non-shopping sites use HTTPS, which is so commonplace that Google Chrome flags them as not secure. Websites without HTTPS should stand out even more from others.

Don't overshare

A shopping online e-tailer does not need your Social Security number or your birthday to complete the transaction. Nevertheless, crooks can do a lot of damage if they get your credit card number and hold of them. Scammers gain more access to your personal information the more likely they are to steal it. You should always default to giving up as little personal information as possible. There are constant breaches of major sites.

Blur yourself online

This browser add-on acts as both a basic password manager and an all-purpose tool. With just $39 a year, you can shop without revealing anything about yourself - not even your credit card number. We've never seen a more impressive online privacy solution.

 

Create strong passwords

In a previous PCMag question, we asked readers if they changed their passwords frequently. Eleven percent of respondents claimed it happened every day. However, those people are either paranoid or liars. About 27% of users change their passwords only a few times every year (and 35% never change their passwords).

Password managers can help you create uncrackable passwords automatically. So that you don't have to think about them, it keeps track of them and enters them.

Check statements regularly

Paying your bills at the end of the month is not a good idea.

During the holiday season especially, you can see your electronic statements online if you have a credit card, debit card, and checking account. You might find fraud charges on sites like PayPal and Venmo as well. You can get your money in more than one way (after all, there is more than one way).

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