In recent years, more people have found the Internet a convenient way to shop, pay bills and track banking activity. The world of e-commerce, has expanded our purchasing abilities from local retailers to worldwide companies and helped our ability to shop while maintaining a busy schedule.
Unfortunately, things can go wrong while shopping in cyberspace. Sometimes the host computer has a problem or maybe poor customer service. Other times, shoppers are cheated by hackers and thieves.
When you go online for any activity where you will be entering any personally identifying or financial information, make sure you are working with the website you expect. To verify the website, look at the website URL (Uniform Resource Locator) at the top of the browser window.
Cyber thieves have created websites that look like legitimate well known companies but they cannot use the legitimate website URL. Also, look at the beginning of the URL for “https://”. If the “s” is not present it is not a secure website and can be monitored by unauthorized people or programs. Many times the “s” does not appear until until you get to the “order” page and that is OK. It is the order page that asks for your name, address and card number and that is the page you want secured.