3 Tactics for Reducing your Risk of Being Tricked When Shopping Online

During the last few months of every year it is not uncommon to see an increase in online shopping. With more events to attend and plan for, increased travel and travel times, we are often faced with shopping online or not at all because we are so limited for time. Luckily, there are things you can do to lower your risk when shopping online. Being aware of these things is a great start in protecting your privacy and financials.

3 Tactics for Reducing your Risk of Being Tricked When Shopping Online

There are three things you can do to reduce your risk when shopping online. These are of course in addition to:

• Ensuring the website is secure when you are ordering or entering any information
• Only creating accounts if you are going to shop here often
• Choosing not to save credit card information
• Using unique user ids and logins when you do create accounts

Going directly to the website you want to shop

One of the best ways you can reduce your risk of being tricked is to go directly to a website by typing it's URL directly into the bar of your web browser rather than searching for the site and clicking on a search result. This ensures you end up at the website you intended.

This is where you want to type the URL, at the top of the browser window:

When you search for websites, you run the risk of clicking on an incorrect link. These are often spoofed sites whose sole purpose is to redirect you so they can rip you off. These sites can vary, some will look almost exactly like your intended destination while others might be more obviously incorrect. Their sole purpose is to get your information though the type of information may vary. Depending upon the website type, they might be trying to get you to enter credentials so they can access your account information, or to get you to enter your credit card and "order" products.

Use only one credit card for online ordering

Another way you can limit your exposure is by only using one credit card when shopping online. This helps narrow your potential risk if one of the places you shop at, or the browser itself, gets hacked. If you comingle a singular credit card with online shopping, automatic bill payments as well as using it for payments via a smart phone, the amount of time you'll spend cleaning up a hacked credit card is exponentially more than if you only use it for online shopping.

Additionally, do not save your credit card information with online purchases unless you've signed up for a subscription and a card must be saved.

Slow down

The last thing that will help reduce your risk of being tricked when shopping online is to slow down. It can be challenging to stop and focus when we are hurrying to accomplish a dozen tasks in a short period of time. However, slowing down will save you far more time than the two to five minutes it will take to check for these things upfront.

Some things that are important are making sure you are at the correct website, that you only have the items you intended in your cart, that you are not creating accounts or saving information with websites you rarely visit, that the website is secure, and that you do not get signed up for recurring subscriptions by accident. It is also important to use caution when clicking on links in emails and to verify emails are sent by someone you expect to get emails from before even opening them.

Going directly to websites rather than using search, using a single credit card for all online purchases and slowing down when shopping online can go a long way towards protecting your data and privacy. There are also a number of other things you can do, like being careful clicking links, avoiding online ads embedded in webpages, not opening emails you don't expect and double-checking an order before placing it to be sure there are no check boxes checked by default that you are unaware of.

As always, each little thing you do to protect yourself adds up and helps create a barrier around your data!