So its Cyber Monday when folks are trying to buy stuff they’ve been looking at in stores. Its the day when you try to get all your electronics and other deals online with the hope of saving even more money than what you saw on Black Friday. Before you pull out the credit/debit card you should be aware of a few tips on shopping. I’m sure you must have heard some of them but hear me out. You might see something you might have missed and as the saying goes, you can’t be secure enough.

1. Do not use a public computer to shop online. Remember the days when you could buy a newspaper by simply putting a quarter in a cup and taking the paper with no one looking on? Well if you could, those days are gone just like the days of trusting any computer. Don’t ever shop online at the library, community center, school or any place where the computer is open to the public. You don’t know if there are keystroke capturing viruses that are living on them sucking in all your keystrokes revealing all your banking and credit card information that thieves can use to wreak havoc in your life. Don’t even use your cousin’s computer at his house. Not that there’s something wrong with your cousin but do you know how safe is their computer?

2. Update your computer’s anti-virus software. Use only computers that you know have the latest updated anti-virus software and that those software have the latest virus updates. Again, this is obvious but making sure that whatever you’re using is up to date is absolutely necessary given how overwhelming the types and varieties and speed of development/morphing of viruses and other malware.

3. Make sure the site is secure. E-commerce sites without some indicator of it being secure should be shunned. Two ways to know they are is the address which must have a https instead of a http. In addition, there would be something like a padlock at the bottom of the screen indicating the same thing.  This means the site is using what is called SSL or Secure Socket Layer which means that the connection between the client or browser and the server is encrypted, preventing hackers from reading it.  If you are being asked for credit card information on an insecure site, run away.

4. Research where you shop thoroughly! Now I know how hard it may be to resist that $20 iPod but do you know if the shop is a good one? Do you know their return policy? Do you know how much they charge for shipping? Three things are important in doing online shopping, research, research and research!! Only shop on sites that are reputable and recommended by established reviewers such as PC World, CNET etc. When you are ready, check out the reviews of the  site by others to see what their experience was. This can provide some very important clues as to what your shopping experience would be at that site.

5. Use a secure credit card. As much as I loathe credit cards, some offer fraud protection that can come in very handy when the time comes. Cards such as American Express offer some good forms of protection that can give you some greater confidence in buying online than debit cards.

6. Look before clicking the submit button. So you’ve made the purchase of that cool digital camera and you’re enjoying it when you get this thank you email for being a member of the We love Your Money travel club and they’ll be charging you $20 per month. You can’t remember doing it but after calling you are told you voluntarily enrolled. Of course you can’t remember doing that but on probing you found out that there was a box clicked for “special offers” that you didn’t bother to unclick and inadvertently joined the club! Look before you click continue. Make sure what you see on screen is what you want and you’re not selecting anything unwanted or unnecessary. These things can be easy to join but difficult to cancel.

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