Online shopping can save you money, not in terms of the gas you save by shopping from home.
There are some serious mistakes you could make that cost you huge buck though. Outright scams aside, there's simple mistakes online shoppers can basically avoid.
Each one of the items on this list is a feasible online shopping pitfall that leave you open for scams, identity theft, & plainly paying much for your purchases.
Have you ever committed any of them?
1. Not checking whether you are on a secured website: look at the address bar to see whether it says “https://”. Online stores ought to also have a small yellow lock meaning the website is encrypted.
2. Checking for the “VeriSign” approval: In case you have seldom bought from a site before, the VeriSign link will tell you if the site is verified as secure.
3. Not using secure payment methods: the safest way to pay online is either using a credit card or Pay Pal. For added protection, you can use temporary credit cards, password protected cards, or virtual credit cards.
4. Not defending your bank account: Similar to point 3, you can use a firewall bank account.
5. Not checking if the merchant is an authorized reseller.
6. Assuming your security application is defending you: Often update your adware, anti-virus, & commercial ware application to keep it effective.
7. Accessing an account through an e-mail link: plenty of phishing scams send emails asking you to update your account information. This is applicable mostly to online banking but also services like Pay Pal.
8. Purchasing in to deals that are tempting: if something sounds nice to be true, it usually is. You are either being scammed for your money, or you are being sold counterfeit products.
9. Contacting a seller before ordering: in case you cannot order through the shopping site, head for the exit.
10. Compare the price of products by price comparison websites like http://www.theecog.com.