Almost everyone makes online purchases these days.  In decades past transactions like these were rare; now they are customary.  Frequent users of online shopping services are now even at greater risk.   Prevention of the exposure to these types of systems is the purpose of this article.

The best way to avoid trouble in the first place is to avoid all online vendors whose names and identities are foreign to you.  Many people believe that their credit card company or bank will protect their account and their money, but this is a faulty assumption.   Many credit cards will, in fact, make you accept their security acknowledgement that such is not the case.

You should endeavor to limit your online purchase to one credit card.   There are several reason for this precaution.   First it inherently forces you to select a card with a high degree of security in the first place.    Second, some banks – including all the biggies – have their own fraud protection and organizations that will help you. 

Next, do not ever take advantage of any online source that offers a reduced price or coupon for using an alternate payment method – except the ones that you know, like PayPal.  Often fraudulent firms will promise a discount or other incentive to get you to choose one of these options.  They then ask you to provide details about your credit card or account information.  The really bold ones ask you to participate in increased security protection, inducing you to this by asking for a separate password or other information to make it sound legitimate, followed by very critical information – as security – like your SSN.   These are the ones to be especially mindful of.

You should totally avoid or click off of any payment processing scenario wherein you are advised that they need partial payment because the item is out of stock and backordered and requires transaction completion at a subsequent date.

Never enter your credit card information into an online payment processing subsystem until and unless it is the last step in the process.  Vendor sites that offer a shipping discount – to entice you to click the submit button – are often doing that to simply close the transaction session so that they will have recorded your credit card and security code from the card backside that enables them to use the data to make purchases.   Make sure that you obtain, print and retain all receipts, acknowledgments and order numbers.

Finally, keeping a clean Windows System Registry will prevent accidental lockups while making online purchases.  You can get high-quality registry software online that scans, deletes and replaces errant codes and completes other registry fix tasks that finish your Registry Repair. 

Comments are closed.