Online Shopping is beneficial because it saves your time and effort, you get verity of products at a discounted price. E-commerce website allow you to return the products if you don’t like them and many provide the facility of cash on delivery, fast shipping adds more value to it. Despite of this fact that thieves always target online buyers so that they can steal their money and personal information, most of the people find online shopping easy and secure. You can join then by following few safety guidelines.
The customer should always be responsible while shopping online. Purchase products from a trusted e-commerce website is much safer than an unknown online retailer. Doing some research about the seller before making a purchase is advisable. If the online retailer doesn’t have any physical address or genuine contact details, don’t proceed further.
Make sure you only purchase goods from those websites that are verified. Scammers make fraudulent shopping websites that look similar to legit e-commerce website, but if you watch carefully, then will find name of the website with a minor spell change or with a different domain (.com instead of .net). These websites never have https:// in their URL as they are not secure. Websites having extended Validation (EV) certificate are more authentic.
Don’t do online shopping through an unsecured Wi-Fi connection.
Try to use a secure payment method or gateway such as PayPal instead of transferring the money directly into online retailer’s bank account. Do not forget to ask for the receipt and save it when you receive or take a print of it.
Installing a firewall and advanced security software in the computer is highly recommended.
Check your bank or credit card statements regularly to ensure that the correct amount was deducted at the time of purchase and no extra amount was taken out later. In case of any dispute or fraudulent activity, inform your credit card service provider immediately so that they can charge back the amount from the retailer.
Do not respond to unasked emails or unwanted pop-up from unknown senders. Be aware that asking for customer’s passwords and credit or debit card pins via email is illegitimate and you forward such emails to spam@uce.gov which is the official email id of Federal Trade Commission.
How can you report Cyber Crime?
Falsification of a product, misleading advertisement, non-delivery of goods purchased online, unauthorized use of customer’s debit or credit card details and stealing personal information come under cyber crime.
If you realize that you have been a victimised by a scammer of a foreign country, then file a complaint at EConsumer.Gov. You can also report an Internet-related crime to The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
IF you are a victim of identity theft, then also report to The Federal Trade Commission first then inform your local police. The documents from both of them combined would be your identity theft report. IF any fraudulent activity is done in your name, then you can use this report to save yourself. You can proactively inform Financial Institutions and Credit Reporting Agencies so that no one can get unauthorized credit cards, open bank accounts and/or get medical services in your name.