7 tips for safe online shopping
Tips Avitonomika / / January 02, 2021
A cheap counterfeit instead of an expensive original or a package lost along the way are far from the worst dangers that lie in wait for online shopping lovers. The worst thing that can happen is stealing money from your card. We will tell you how to minimize risks.
1. Choose trusted sellers
An obvious but effective advice: choose products in popular stores that have existed for more than one year and are in demand. Probably, the prices there will be higher than on dubious pages, but there are many advantages. This is both an official guarantee for the use of the product, and a refund if, for various reasons, you are unhappy with the purchase. Even if there are problems with purchased jeans or a kettle and the case goes to court, a big seller will not be able to sink into oblivion with your money.
2. Study reviews
Often, dishonest online sellers who don't even plan to send you anything are trying to create the appearance of serious and quality work. To do this, they add fake rave reviews to the site. And usually, such comments are written by would-be copywriters hired for ridiculous money on freelance exchanges, who easily give themselves out:
- The texts from "different" clients come across the same turns, spelling and speech are repeated errors or abstract descriptions are used such as "excellent quality", "decent price", "very liked". Often the author of reviews simply does not have enough time to properly study the product, so he gets off with general phrases.
- Comments are published "in bulk": in a couple of days, a dozen positive reviews appear, often with the same interval, then after a break (the copywriter has a day off) the situation repeats.
Even the smallest online store is trying to acquire pages on social networks. Look for reviews there, and at the same time see how account owners react to complaints: ignore them, argue with the buyer, or try to solve a problem.
3. Buy through official apps
They are owned by many large online stores, and they often have much less vulnerabilitiesthan sites. And applications are equally beneficial to both the seller and the buyer. The online store can remind of itself at any time by sending a push notification with a promo code or other news to the client's smartphone. And the buyer sometimes gets a bonus for having installed the program.
When downloading the application, make sure that it is really official. Check the information about the developer (usually it is indicated right under the icon with the name). In the App Store or Google Play, you can also find a list of all applications from the developer and his contact information.
4. Check the site's address bar
If you do not use the application, but the site, always carefully study its address:
- even minimal spelling mistakes (an extra letter or hyphen) can lead the buyer to a fake resource, the interface of which is similar to the original;
- a multi-storey site, such as shop.tilda, means that the owners have saved on building it - perhaps because they are going to use it for fraudulent purposes.
It is safer to enter the website address manually, rather than navigate to it through a search query.
If in an online store you can not only order, but also buy a product, make sure that the site uses the 3D Secure protocol, which ensures payment security. Its presence is indicated by the logos of payment systems with the words Verified by Visa, MasterCard Secure Code and Mir Accept. The payment page address must start with https. Next to it there will be an image of a green lock, click on it and select "View certificates" in the menu that appears. Check if the certificate was issued to this particular site and whether it has expired.
5. Use a separate card to pay for purchases
Fraud is on the rise in online shoppingEuropean Online Payment Fraud & Security Report, 2019 - Online Payment Fraud Rises in Europe and Worldwide, therefore, if possible, pay for purchases on the Internet with a non-salary card.
Issue an additional debit card for such shopping and do not forget to connect mobile banking to receive alerts about the transactions performed. Check with your bank how to set a limit on funds for purchases and if you can limit the amount of transfers and cash withdrawals. This is to prevent fraudsters from transferring all the money to their accounts at a time, even if they got access to your card details.
And in any case, do not send money to an electronic wallet or personal card of the seller, especially until the moment you receive the goods.
6. Create a dedicated mailbox
And use it exclusively for online shopping. Your primary email can contain a lot of sensitive and sensitive information, down to the draft, where you add passwords from all services and scans of documents (do not do this never). In addition, you probably use it to access your social media accounts. You can imagine the scale of the disaster if scammers gain access to this mailbox (for example, when you specify it while making a purchase from an unreliable online store).
7. Connect a VPN when you're not at home or at work
Shopping cravings can catch you in a cafe, subway car, or anywhere else with public Wi-Fi. Not always the administrators of these networks can guarantee complete security of the data you transmit, especially if you do not need to log in password. Do not rush to place an order, even if you trust the store 100%. If possible, connect to virtual private networks, or VPNs, first.
What to do if, nevertheless, you become a victim of scammers
As soon as you find that the money from the card began to flow away, act. Contact the bank immediately, or at least do it the next day, but not later. Block your card and protest the transfer as a fraudulent transaction. But do not dispute any card transactions if you yourself have performed them. For example, they paid for the goods, and then realized that the store was fake, or in a telephone conversation or correspondence with the "seller" they themselves named all the details. Otherwise, you will most likely have to pay a penalty for an erroneously protested transaction. Look for information about this in your agreement with the bank or on its website.
Report to the police too. Internet fraud issues are solved Office "K" Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and you can send an appeal through the Internet reception. You can also draw up an ordinary statement on paper: for this you will need to personally appear at the nearest police station.
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