When shopping online, common sense should be your guide.
Here are some common sense tips to follow when you are shopping online this holiday season or any time of the year:
- Make sure the site you are shopping on is a trusted site and has a good reputation. Also, make sure the url (website address) you are purchasing from is the same as the url of the vendor.
- Don't sign up for free newsletters from questionable websites.
- Check your computer system frequently for spyware. You can use Ad Aware by Lavasoft or Spybot to do this. You can set the software to do automatic checks so you don't have to rely on memory to do it.
- Avoid personal messages in public chatrooms...especially if they claim to have a great deal and all you have to do is fill out a form with a lot of your personal information or download a program to your computer.
- Be careful of emails claiming to be from a service department. Never click on the link in those emails. Instead, go directly to the site by typing in the correct address of the site. Many times, these are phishing emails that look official because they copied a logo from a business but the link takes you a different location for the purpose of stealing your financial information.
- Never give out money in advance or your location unless you thoroughly trust the entity you are doing business with.
- Always use spam filters on your email accounts.
- Use strict spam settings on your web based email.
- Use a program like Siteadvisor to check the status of a website before doing business with that entity.
- Use antivirus programs and set up firewalls on your computer system.
- If you have a wireless network in your home, protect it by using the strong encryption in your wireless router.
- Use unique and complex passwords on each of your accounts. If you use the same password on your social media and financial accounts it makes it easier for cyber criminals to get your data.
- Do a lot of research on the internet about how to avoid becoming a victim of cyber fraud. There are a lot of articles written on the subject as well as business and government websites.
These common sense approaches to doing business online and shopping online are not only applicable to those of us in Colorado Springs, but to people worldwide.
Always protect your personal information!
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