SAFE ONLINE SHOPPING & WEB-SURFING TIPS & SOURCES
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We are glad to provide suggestions for both informational and shopping websites that can enhance our site visitors' web experiences as they search and visit other websites. But with so many new online businesses appearing every day, it's wise to exercise reasonable caution in shoppng on the Web.
Here are some things you can look for to make your online shopping and activities more secure and reliable, year-round as well as during peak holiday seasons:
- Patronize secure sites that protect you by encrypting your credit card info during checkout. This is done when a site's URL address begins with "https://" when you are asked to enter your credit card number or other personal information.
- If you use Internet Explorer as your browser, look for a closed lock at the bottom of your screen when you are on secure pages; on Netscape, the symbol that is used is an unbroken key.
- Check a business's website to confirm that they have posted complete contact information including a phone number, fax number, e-mail address and standard mailing address. You should do this especially when you shop from companies that are new to you.
- Look for a posted privacy policy and ensure that it emphasizes protection of your personal information from other individuals or companies.
- Find out the company's policies regarding returns and refunds, and satisfaction guarantee.
- Identify any shipping charges that will be levied for purchases you make, and requirements for guarantees such as free shipping or next-day delivery.
- Do not provide your Social Security number or information about your bank account on registration or sign-up pages.
- Note the expected delivery date stated when you make a purchase. Make sure that such info is available to you online prior to final processing - you want to be able to cancel the order beforehand if such delivery time is not acceptable to you.
- Save and print the page containing purchase order or confirmation number for your transaction so you can refer to it in the event of any problems. This information should be printed out every time you place an order. Note - if the site you visit uses frames, you will want to save the "complete" html (not just the simple html) when you do a Save-As using Windows9x.
- Apply common sense in using your credit card number on the Net.
- Merchants selling products or services should be using some form of encryption or safeguards such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection.
- Be guarded about believing claims on the Web that seem to good to be true
- Be especially cautious about get-rich-quick schemes.
- Be at least a little skeptical about sites offering prices or rates that are "too" much than traditional sources.
- Watch the URL (web address). Commercial sites in foreign countries may not be subject to U.S. consumer protection laws. (Check our internic page for a list of URL extensions for foreign countries, which do not end in ".com".)
- If you have any doubts about a site, double-check with the Better Business Bureau to find out if there have been excessive complaints about the firm in question.
- If you do encounter fraud in your online shopping, we have posted some shortcuts above on this page to contact.
In some ways, online shopping may actually be safer than store shopping, given the elimination of associated risks of street crime, traffic hazards, pickpocketing or careless handling of credit card receipts.
Online shopping is relatively new ground for many people, though, and so "buyer beware" is as good a maxim to follow here as it is for ordering by telephone or direct mail.
As we all get more active on the Internet at a furious pace, most of us are discovering that "cyber-commerce" offers a lot of convenience.
We make it a policy not to make recommendations for Net users to engage in transactions at any particular site, but we do make recommendations of sites worth visiting for various interest areas that our visitors may have, for information or for evaluating the appropriateness of a business site in their choices about where to procure goods and services online. Because we affiliate with a large number of websites for purposes of publicizing as visit-worthy, we are not dependent on individual affiliated merchant for any significant portion of proceeds that we derive from these relationships en toto. We strive to associate with websites that reliably provide what they offer online, but the recommendations we make about visiting any other sites are, simply, recommendations to visit and evaluate them using your own best judgement. Everybody's standards are different, and we do not endorse any other website's business practices. We post the above suggestions as generally agreed-upon safeguards that you might wisely incorporate in your own use of the Internet.
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