This year, holiday shoppers are more likely to fill up a virtual shopping cart than a real one.
Our reality looks very different than a year ago. Online shopping will become a necessity for many of us this holiday season, so it’s beneficial to know how to protect your information from hackers lurking on the net.
Here are some best practices to keep you and yours safe online this time of year:
- Make sure your antivirus software is up to date.
- Use only secure Wi-Fi connections when making purchases or entering personal information online.
- Shop only at secure websites with HTTPS:// in the address.
- Be cautious when clicking online ads as they may be malicious.
- Beware of large discounts or free offers from unknown sites. Always remember, as a rule of thumb, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
- Be extra cautious when you receive emails regarding shipment tracking or invalid payments from what appear to be popular shopping sites or delivery services.
- Protect your passwords and don’t reuse the same password at every retail or banking website.
- Track your credit card and banking transactions.
- Use a dedicated credit card for online purchases (or a service like PayPal) and/or set up card-not-present alerting. A card-not-present transaction occurs whenever the cardholder, the card and the merchant aren’t in the same physical location. You can set up alerts through your settings preference on your credit card notifications or alerts.
- Avoid saving personal information online when shopping.
Be vigilant with your personal information. Your caution can help you avoid becoming the victim of an online crime, including identity theft.
