Shopping online can be a very stressful experience. With all of the stories of fraud and identity theft, many people are nervous to shop online. Although online shopping will never be absolutely risk free (but then again, nothing is absolutely risk free!), there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of being a victim of fraud.

Contact Information - At a minimum, full contact information should be readily available on the website including business address and phone number. If this is not available, this should be a warning to you. Also, it is always a good idea to validate the phone number and address of the online business if possible. You can use online phone directories with reverse lookups (the ability to type in a phone number and be provided an address) to verify the phone number and the address. If all of this matches up, this is a good sign. You may even want to call and speak with a live person before making the purchase.

Also, you should consider where you are purchasing from. Obviously, it would be less risky to purchase in Canada or the United States than it would be from an online store in Nigeria where Internet fraud is extremely high.

SSL 128-Bit Encryption - If you are going to do a transaction over the Internet, you want to make sure your information is protected when it is sent through the Internet to the online website. The standard way of doing this today is for a website to use a SSL certificate with 128-Bit encryption. This encrypts the information between your browser and the website, preventing interception of credit cards and other personal information. If the online business does not use SSL 128-Bit encryption, this should be a warning to you. In fact, even if the business is legitimate, I still would not recommend sending confidential information to their online website because it could be intercepted.

So how can you tell if the online website has the SSL certificate with 128-Bit encryption? Just look for the closed lock in the bottom corner of the latest versions of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. If the lock is there, it is using SSL. You can double-click the lock and verify that it is using 128-Bit encryption as well.

Policies - Refund Policies and Privacy Policies are must reads before buying from an online store. The Refund Policy should be acceptable to you personally; the Privacy Policy will inform you as to how your personal information will be used and protected. Keep in mind, by law if a business is processing or storing your personal information it is required to have a Privacy Policy.

Finally, use your best judgment. If a site looks professional, has full contact information, has secure SSL 128-Bt encryption, and clear policies, the risk is greatly reduced.

W. Roberts
CanuckShops.ca
http://www.canuckshops.ca