I was asked a question by a former co-worker a few weeks ago, and made a mental note to write about it, but hadn’t had the chance yet.
So today I will, a lot of people don’t shop online because they don’t know if they can trust it, will their identity get stolen? Will someone steal your information?
The hard answer is that it’s very possible that could happen. But the internet is not the only way your identity or information can be stolen anyways now is it? Nope. Someone could steal your mail; or a computer from an employee at your company, or at your health insurance company, or just by knowing you. The sad truth is sometimes family members even steal the identity of other family members.
But there are a few things you CAN do to protect yourself and your money. Tomorrow I’ll be writing about which accounts to use in you online shopping…
1. Read the disclosure statement on any website you’ll be purchasing from to find out how your information will be used.
2. Look for a security badge, or seal in the page where you enter your credit card information.
3. Shop at online retailers you trust, department stores are online now as well, you can even shop at your favorite malls on the internet in some places.
4. In some cases signing up for a credit monitoring service can be useful to you, namely if you’re trying to increase your credit score, you can also monitor for theft of your information and purchases you’ve not authorized.
Those are just a few tips, overall I think you can take these tips combined with your own good judgment and take the plunge and buy something online. You never know, you may become addicted to online shopping :D.
