I love to shop online. And when I say love, I mean it emphatically. Anyone who read this post knows my excitement over deal of the day sites. I also stalk Mir at WantNot daily and buy a majority of what I need from Amazon. Not only is the point and click method way easier than dragging 3 children to the store, but the choices you have online far outnumber what you can find in a store. On top of the convenience factor, there’s the pocketbook factor. Ever tried using an online coupon code at the actual store? Yeah, it doesn’t work. I doubt I’m the only one that ventures out to Old Navy or The Loft, tries on the outfits I’m intending to buy, and then goes home to order them online with 15% coupon codes in hand.
With all this in mind, however, it might be easy to forget that when you do “point and click,” you’re sending all sorts of valuable information to who knows where! It takes all kinds to make the world go round, and some of those people are just waiting for you to get careless and send out unprotected credit card information. It’s essential to you and your family that you make sure your information is being sent from as secure of a connection as possible! F-Secure offers a free Health Check that can pinpoint the possible security vulnerabilities on your PC and helps to make sure your system stays in good shape. Software like F-Secure Internet Security 2009 keeps you protected and automatically updates your computer’s defenses, wherever your online shopping expedition takes you.
What are your online shopping worries? Do you have a particularly nasty story of internet shopping horror? Leave me a comment here telling me and you’ll be in the running for a $50 Target Gift Card!! Winner will be chosen by Random.org June 20, 2009 at 11:59 am. U.S. Residents only, please!
For more tips on safely shopping the internet, read below! F-Secure is full of great ideas!
Buy from reputable stores
Since you can’t physically touch the products or judge the trustworthiness of the salesperson, get into the habit of identifying the signs of a reputable web site. Just as you wouldn’t buy a Rolex watch for 20 euros from a shady character on the street corner, don’t take any chances with online vendors.
The first alarm bells should start ringing if you have never heard of the shop, it doesn’t have a postal address, and nobody answers when you call the customer service contact number. A quick web search should reveal if the company really exists and whether anyone else has experienced problems dealing with it.
Pop-up adverts and questionnaires jumping around the screen are another bad sign. Never write your personal details in the pop-ups that may appear when you are shopping around, unless you really want more spam e-mail in your inbox. If a shopping web site requires you to open an account and to log on with a password, make your passwords more secure by mixing upper case, lower case and special characters.
Always scrutinize the product descriptions and shipping costs before buying something. Read the small print and make sure you know how to follow the status of your order in case of a delay. Most importantly, don’t forget to check the company’s refund policy so that you’re not left wearing the wrong-sized shoes.
Making secure payments
There are also useful things to look out for when you have clicked on the ‘checkout’ button but have not yet typed in your credit card numbers or PayPal details. Many online shops display a closed padlock or unbroken key symbol and switch to a https:// address when you proceed to the checkout. Be reassured that https stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer. Spotting that padlock or https should therefore bring a warm glow of relief to the face of every online shopper. It means that the sensitive information you send during the checkout process is encrypted and can’t be read by others. The padlock should be located in the address bar or status bar in Internet Explorer, or the navigation tool bar in Firefox. If it appears on the page itself, you have ran into a fraudulent web site.
Paying by credit card is a good idea because you can usually get refunded if it has been wrongly charged by a shop or used fraudulently by someone else. Keep a sharp eye on your credit card statements and immediately contact your bank if unauthorized payments have been made on your card. Print out the e-mail order confirmations and receipts for your purchases. If you do have problems with a shop, remember that normal consumer rights also apply on the products that you buy on the Internet.
Safe habits save money
Never, ever, buy anything advertised in a spam message. Junk mail offers that seem too good to be true are usually exactly that. They are scams designed to steal your personal details, to infect your computer with nasty stuff like spyware, and to part you from your money. Clicking on attachments or links in spam messages is simply asking for trouble. Also watch out for bogus messages asking you to verify your eBay, PayPal or online banking details. Reputable companies will never do that, so delete all such requests.
The key to avoiding shopping disappointments on the Web is to follow your common sense, backed up by up-to-date security software. If you have any doubts about a web site, then spend your money elsewhere. With so many retailers at your fingertips who are prepared to make online shopping safe and enjoyable, it’s really not worth taking any risks.
{ 99 comments… read them below or add one }
I am usually very aware of when a shopping website is secure (a little lock on my toolbar and the s after http). However, one time I was looking for something and forgot to check before I ordered the item. I used Paypal as my checkout. About 2 weeks later I noticed an odd charge on my Paypal account. I did some reasearch and come to find out it was a phishing company. If you don’t catch it and dispute it then they will continue to charge your account over and over. Thank goodness Paypal was on my side and got rid of the bogus charge and stopped them from doing any more harm to me.
I love shopping online and find its so much better than going to the store. The deals are better and its shipped to the door. I have a back problem and I can’t stand for a long time. I love to shop and on line is the best!!
I have usually had very good experiences with online shopping. Recently, however, I had a kind of bad incident. I ordered some favors for a baby shower and 1) they didn’t come in time for the shower (I blame that partly on my ordering them too late), but 2) it took them almost a month to arrive! I emailed and called the company several times and it turns out a third-party company had lost the order (it was a personalized item so it was set out to this other company). I eventually got the order and asked that shipping be refunded, which it was. It was quite a pain! Glad it wasn’t anything more important.
Fortunately, I have never had a bad experience while shopping online. But I always do a lot of research on the product that I am looking at, and ask questions (especially on eBay.) My biggest fear is that what I end up getting is not what I thought it would be.
i am afriad to buy online that ill get overcharged or my info will get out there
I have never had a problem with online shopping and tend to not worry about it much. However, recently on one of the mommy message boards that I post on, a bunch of women had their cc info stolen by a website offering a “free” baby product. So you have to be careful!
I do a lot of online shopping and so far, have not had any problems. I enjoy the fact that I don’t have to leave my home to buy what I want.
I have usually had no issues shopping online and do it frequently. But last year I had VISA call me about huge charges that had recently popped up on my account (I hadn’t made them, and thank goodness for the vigilant customer service at VISA!). VISA took care of everything, but warned me that if I shop online, I need to be careful to ensure that there is an “s” after the http, indicating its security. I had not heard that before but I sure check now!
marin (dot) obrien {at} g mail
I haven’t had any issues of internet shopping. *knocks on wood* But I also don’t do that much shopping online. I am more of “gotta see it in person” type person. But when I do shop online I always make sure the site is secure and only shop at sites I trust.
I worry that clothes I am purchasing won’t fit, or that the colors of things will look different in real life than they did on the screen. Thanks for the chance!
I worry that what it looks like in the online photo will not be realistic. I once bought a little sunflower arrangement for my kitchen from Ebay, and when it was delivered it was enormous. Hardly what i expected.
My online shopping worries are with clothes and shoes. If they are not a right fit, I hate having to re-pack everything and ship it back to get a refund or exchange.
Online shopping for me was always pretty cut and dry. The worst problem i’d ever run into, for YEARS was an eBay purchase lost by the seller in their move. She found it, months later, but since it was an art piece that I just wanted for wanting’s sake, while I was heartbroken during the interim, and becoming skeptical of her myriad claims of “i’m looking for it, honest” in order to avoid having to refund my output, but ultimately, it worked out well. I got my art doll and she got to keep my money, still it made me a touch leery.
Since then, again, eBay has proven to be my nemesis. I was in the market for clothdiapers for my newborn, and although my gut always says “it’s too good to be true, so it isn’t,” alas, i foolishly let myself be seduced by brightly colored onesize diapers from China which were listed for less than half of what it would have cost for me to get the mainstream diapers I knew I could count on. Well, they work. Kinda. Some of them. But the legs are too loose still, and the snaps on some are utter FAIL, so in the end, i didn’t really save any m oney, and ended up with a somewhat inferior product, considering that I can’t even use some of them.
So my new rule is to only buy from well trusted sites, and only buy products that I have seen in person or that have been reviewed really well, because it’s just not worth the hassle and the risk of yet another miserable defeat in the area of online shopping.
My biggest worries about shopping online are just not being able to see/try a product beforehand. I’m a very concrete person, and it makes me nervous to order things that I can try on, or can’t test before I purchase them. I also worry about my credit card being “out there”, but so far our CC companies have been VERY good to us if there’s ever been a risk.
I don’t have a horror story but I know a friend that had a huge problem with Paypal. Someone somehow hacked into her account and bought all kinds of things – and her account was linked to her checking. YOUCH!
What are my online shopping worries? Wondering if whatever clothing items I buy are going to fit. I alwaysss want to buy stuff online because I find a lot of good deals but a lot of things fit me differently so it is a toss up as to whether it will fit or not. I feel like having to return it is too much of a hassle.
I have had pretty good luck, but my husband did not while buying a gift for me. He was buying two Victoria’s Secret pajama sets for me, and one of them was the correct item, although it was way too big for me. I’m a size small. Then the other set came, or so we thought. When I opened the package it was a red sweater in a size large and the neck was cut down to my waste. Needless to say I had to return them and we’ve never ordered another item from them online again.
I had a problem with online shopping only once….I hadnt used my card in awhile after my purchase then one day check my statement and there had been an $800 charge to my card. My heart dropped! Thankfully things got straightened out and now I am very conscious of website securities
I love to shop online for everything! I do hate when clothes don’t fit or are not how they look on the internet, but I never send them back.
I love to shop online and so far I have not had any problems. I do worry about correct sizing when I buy clothing online for my grandchildren.
janetfaye (at) gmail (dot) com
Believe it or not, I don;t have any shopping horrors. I have had a pretty easy time so far. My only beef is how some companies spike their shipping costs so high. That is the only deterrent from online shopping for me.
So far no problems, but I am afraid of the item not fitting or being of poor quality.
I haven’t had any shopping horrors and I love online shopping but I HAVE had issues where I’ve participated in a “free trial” but then to be charged TRIPLE a normal month charge BEFORE my trial even ended! (I’m currently waiting for Google Revolution to credit my account as we speak!! GRRR)
thebookfaeryreviews (at) gmail (dot) com
I love shopping online, but I always worry about getting a correct fit.
I love shopping on line…saves me tons of time. Sometimes I do worry about the color… sometimes things look a bit different on line than in person.
I love love love shopping online, you can find great deals. The worst experience I’ve had was when I bought several swimsuits from Spiegals. I bought 5 because I wanted to try them on and see what looked good on me and then return the ones I didn’t want (I called customer service and they said that was fine as long as I paid return shipping which I did). But then once I returned them they said they weren’t in “New” condition– even though I just tried them on once! Even that wasn’t so bad, they gave me a giftcard instead of my refund, though I really needed the refund!
I recently ordered a photo calendar for my parents of my son, and later my Check Card was flagged by the bank as apparently the site is known for testing stolen cards. I did actually have a $9 charge for something else put on my card, so I immediately cancelled it. It’s too bad, the calendar was nice and the price was cheap…I rarely have security issues online though as I mainly use major sites like Amazon and department stores.
Personally, I have never had any issues shopping on the internet…for which I am very grateful. I just love shopping online. In fact, I guess I should be a bit more diligent. Just because I’ve never had a bad experience doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
Thanks!
I honestly love online shopping. Especially around the holidays. You can find amazing deals and I have had god experiences with most companies I’ve bought from. My only concern is online privacy. I don’t want my credit card number getting stolen or lost or shared with a third party. So I like to shop with encrypted sites. I just wish more shops took Paypal as a payment, it would be nice to be able to pay in other ways besides credit cards. Thanks so much for the great giveaway!!
I love online shopping, but I will never use Half. com again. I ordered a textbook once and they took my money, but despite the repeated emails about where my book was, I never saw it. I was out the $30.
I love to shop online and fortunately (knock wood) have not had any problems. I love how convenient it is and that I don’t have to drag the kids all over town to find what I need or want.
I love shopping online but have been the victim of hackers. I had someone hack into my Paypal account and used it to buy $700 worth of software. I only found out when my debit card got declined at the grocery store. It was truly embarassing. Luckily I was able to report it to Paypal quickly and they reversed the charges.
I don’t worry too much about shopping online since I usually stick to the big name stores but I always worry about returning items. My husband recently purchased a book online and there was gum stuck on some of the pages. Now we’re trying to figure out how to fix the problem.
we have been very lucky- no bad experiences to speak of……….. knock on wood!
i’m most wary of people gaining access to my personal information online. one time, i found some miscellaneous charges on my credit card. i guess i had made a purchase from an insecure site.
I’ve never had any problems except for my own laziness about returning items that don’t fit!
Thankfully I’ve been lucky with online shopping, and I do it way too much! ; )
I LOVE online shopping and have rarely had a bad experience. Only on ebay a few times have I never gotten what I bought. :-/ But I still like shopping online so much…
I typically have good luck shopping online. That is until this past Christmas.
I had severe morning sickness, but Christmas still had to go on. My husband and I were putting together a toddler coupe car that we got online, but we noticed that some pieces weren’t there.
So, there we were searching everywhere….except to realize we didn’t misplace them–they weren’t included in the box!
We couldn’t go and exchange it and I was so upset because that was our little girl’s big gift. Without wheels. *sigh*
We did get a replacement but it took a few weeks to get here….and that is my worst online experience so far.
I often worry about sizes. If clothes don’t fit, I like when you can return them to the store instead of shipping them back.
My biggest concern about online shopping is using my Visa debit card. I’ve never had any trouble with using it (and I shop online A LOT), but I know that it’s probably just a matter of time before some thief causes me a headache. Thankfully I did have the good sense to open a separate account with it’s own debit card that keeps a minimal amount of money in it just for the purchases I’m making.
I’m short-waisted, so order clothing is an absolute pain for me because nothing fits correctly.
Luckily, no horror story here…But I’m always worried when I buy from an individual (like through Etsy and such) that the person won’t hold up on their end of the deal.
sblilly14(@)yahoo(.)com
I rarely shop online for clothing because I am hard to fit.I have bought purses online and had to send them back because they look nothing like the pictures. Thanks for the chance!
I’ve overall been very lucky. I recently had an Etsy seller that took forever to get me my order (even though I paid via paypal about 20 seconds after ordering), and I did have another online seller ship via UPS when I purposely paid extra to have the items shipped Priority Mail. Other than that, though, all good experiences!
I will only buy from reputable online stores or highly recommended etsians now when it comes to stuff for my kids. I bought some puppets on ebay a few years ago. They said they were new with tags…well they had the tags, but were from some horribly made company that had never been specified in the listing. The fur was flaking off with the wind and worst of all, they reeked of cigarette smoke. No way it was going near my kids–especially since one’s asthmatic!
We love to shop online for clothes because we live in a relatively small town. However, right after we made several purchases online, our credit card number was stolen. Luckily we caught it early and we reimbursed, but it was still scary. Now we only buy from large scale online retailers.
I’m worried about:
identity theft.
or my item will be damaged during shipping or mishandled.
I tend to be much more likely to buy non-clothing items online since then I don’t worry that they won’t fit right. I do like to find good deals online for things that I know I want and have possibly already checked out in the store. For instance, when it came time to upgrade to new cell phones, my husband and I went in and looked at all of them but then just ordered them off of the internet because they were incredibly cheaper and we had already tried them out. Thanks!
I’ve had really good luck shopping online. My biggest fear when i started was having my credit card number “out there” but then I realized that it’s just as vulnerable (if not moreso) to use your card in person. I keep close track of my purchases and I’ve never had a problem.
My bank called me one morning and asked if I’d been purchasing things in Trinidad! Well, no. When they called, I was suspicious of THEM because they called so early in the morning (around 8), but they didn’t ask me any personal information. They had already locked down my debit account. I’ve never used the debit for online purchases, so I can only guess it was hacked from one of the many data breeches at major department stores.