Avoiding E-Commerce Hazards

There are many benefits to engaging in e-commerce, it also entails risks. These risks include identify theft, personal information exposure, money loss, and being ripped-off by unscrupulous charlatans. To protect yourself you should carefully create user names and passwords, particularly at sites where you must pay for goods or services. You should avoid e-commerce with little-known companies; at least you’ve taken the opportunity to check their legitimacy. You can check on shopping portals how other shoppers rate a new retailers before buying from one. Even though you are most likely protected from monetary losses by your credit card company, you should always be careful when giving out your credit card information, and you should only do so on secure sites. Never share credit card or account numbers or user name and password information with others; even if you receive and e-mail requesting that information from what seems to be a legitimate source. Some of the things you should look for on a secure site (one that is protected from intrusion of your personal business by others) are the https:// protocol in the address of the site instead of the usual http://. The added “s” stands for “hypothecate site”. Other things you can look for are the VeriSign logo, the golden lock symbol, or a logo from other site-security entities such as Verified by Visa. Another security alert is a message box that indicates “You are entering (or leaving) a secure Website. It is the seller who decides which vendor to use for the goods/payment transaction. For instance, if you see the PayPal Logo on eBay auction item site, it means that you can use PayPal as a payment option. In fact, sometimes this is the only option available. The PayPal Web site even offers a tool to help you manage your buying experience. The PayPal Auction Finder searches eBay for items you’ve recently won and prefills your payment from with details taken straight from the item listing. With Auction Finder, you can eliminate errors and pay for your items instantly. Always use extra care and caution whenever you conduct financial transactions on the Internet.