#Collaborative post

Online shopping has made our lives easier. It’s fast, often cheaper, and very easy. You just clicked on the link, chose the product, added it to the cart, clicked on the “pay” button and the money was debited in a couple of seconds, and the purchase is already on its way to you. But as is often the case, there is also the other side of the coin – the risks. You can run into scammers: some sell what they don’t have, others sell fake or broken products, and others try to swindle bank card details under various pretexts.

It’s unlikely that it will be possible to describe all the pitfalls in one article, but here are some tips that you can constantly apply to minimize the risk.

Pay attention to the site

Don’t trust unknown stores or sites that provide services. If you come across some site where prices are noticeably lower, you shouldn’t rejoice. Such a store can be a one-day shop. Before using its services, it is better to check the reviews. For example, the Spa in Abu Dhabi website has a huge number of positive reviews regarding the massage session, massage parlor, massage masters, and so on. It is hardly possible to doubt the reputation of such a massage parlor.

By the way, have you seen that the addresses of some sites start with http, and some with https? Experts recommend trusting https:// – this is how secure sites with the right certificate begin. Also, to the left of the address bar, there should be an icon in the form of a closed padlock. If the icon is red or crossed out, then purchases should be abandoned. When buying on verified sites, you can see the marks of payment systems: Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode. This is also a great benefit.

Find the seller’s official website

Fraudsters often create fake, phishing sites. They are like two drops of water similar to the official online stores of the brand, but created in order to access the visitor’s bank card data when he wants to pay for the goods. Pay attention to the site address: an extra or missing letter in the name, the wrong domain ending – and you have already found yourself on a very similar, but completely different site. Applee.com – you might not notice, right?

Previously, scammers made websites rather clumsily – pictures from the official one, plus indistinct mobile layout, but now they have become more adept, and it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish fakes. We drive the site address into the search and see what the almighty Internet says. It’s good that the big brands themselves are constantly fighting with their counterparts.

Make a separate card for online purchases

Get a separate card and transfer to it only the amounts that are needed for the purchase. Even if scammers get the card data, they will not be able to steal all the money. The virtual card, which banks issue in addition to the main one, works in the same way. It is created for a specific purchase and a limit is set on it, more than which it is impossible to spend, so criminals will not be able to use such a card. This is especially true for those payment systems and online stores to which you want to link a card for convenience.

Shop online from a browser without an anonymizer or public proxy servers

If you have not installed anything like this in your browser, there is no problem. If you set that it is worth having a separate one for shopping. Using such services, you will never be sure that there is not someone standing between you and the online store who receives all the information that you exchange with any sites, including your personal data and your bank card data.

And best of all, don’t use public computers and public Wi-Fi hotspots for shopping, especially those that are not password protected. It’s calmer when you do it from home, from friends, or from a smartphone with verified Wi-Fi or mobile data.

Use autocomplete correctly

Before paying for a purchase in the online store, you must specify the card details: number, expiration date, three-digit security code on the back, as well as the name and surname of the owner. Pretty annoying. It happens that the browser offers to save the card data in order to fill out the payment form automatically in the future. It seems damn convenient, but don’t settle for it. This is especially dangerous for a browser in which you have a personal profile used on several computers.

You will say – but in any case, the bank will send an SMS to my number to confirm the purchase? Not always, for example, a giant like Sony, when buying digital goods for a game console, will simply deduct money from the saved card after pressing it.