Shopping safely online

Now that Christmas is out the way, you may be planning on doing some online shopping in the New year sales. But can you be sure that what you are being us genuine and where you are buying from is legit?
With online shopping fraud peeking over the Xmas period with 15,000 victims losing +£10 million being stolen or lost in the UK alone, you do need to ensure that when you are taking the online plunge, you do it with care. 
To try and ensure you stay safe when you shop online, we have compiled a quick list of shop safely tips for our customers. 

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• Firstly, and most importantly, prior to using any online portal that asks for your bank details, ensure it has secure payment pages.  Secure pages are identified with the ‘https’ and the padlock symbol at the start of the web address. Now, what some people do not realise is that any site now matter how reputable, could have recently added an app or widget, that is not secure. If this is the case the https and padlock will be missing, so always check, even if you have used the site before.  
• What the ‘https’ does, is secure your connection, unfortunately it does not protect who you choose to connect too, so even though we have highlighted that you should always check whoever you connect too, it is always advisable to use the reputable retailers.  A TV on johnsmiths.org may seem like a great deal and be £100s of less than the asking price on Curry’s, but there is probably a reason for that…
• Where you make a purchase can also make a difference, never use public wifi. There are people out there can access a wifi’s history and if your card details are on there, they will find them.
• Use the right payment method – When using Ebay, use Paypal and wherever possible use a credit card to make payment as opposed to debit card.  Credit cards offer greater security and if someone ever cracks your debit card details, they can then access your bank, which will hold all sorts of treasures for a hacker.
• Social media is now the in thing for hackers, if you se an advert for something that is to good to be true, it probably is. Always do as much research as you can if you plan on buying something from an advert that you have seen online.  Funnily enough this happens more with fake sites being made to sell small things cheaply. Why? Because people tend to not worry about or chase up a lost £5. For the fraudsters that are selling 1000’s of these things online at £5 but never sending them, this is an easy buck.
• Simple things that you hear all the time like; always have different passwords and never ever, ever enter your PIN online are some of the wisest words spoken. If someone accesses one of your cards, if they can access them all, it will be a nightmare.

We are sure that these simple tips are nothing new to our clever clients, but we just want to make sure that you people never have to deal with the hassles of changing bank details or chasing money, because of a simple oversight.  From the Systems integration team, we hope you have all had a great Christmas and hope you enjoy shopping in the New year sales on line safely.
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