Online shopping and
e-payment for different services are amazing comforts given by technology to
the modern man. We can enjoy shopping for just any other stuff and world-class
products from international brands without having to physically travel to those
places. This trend has stemmed from numerous innovations in financial and IT
sector. Use of plastic money, digitalization of banking transactions, and entry
of numerous players in online retailing are some prominent factors responsible
for the spurt and inclination of buyers towards online purchase. However, the
same is not far from imperfections, and several limitations do affect
e-shopping too.
Numerous incidences are
cropping up wherein innocent buyers are fooled to give out their credit card
details on the web to malicious individuals. How? You could be directed to a
fraud web page which resembles the one you are planning to shop at. But, this
web page is a phishing link which is there simply to harvest your credit card
details and plot a cyber theft.
This doesn’t mean that you
should never shop online. You just need to be mindful of few security measures
and avoid certain pitfalls when you are about to give out your credit card
details on the Internet.
How to Pay Safe Online?
There is nothing wrong with
sharing your credit card number on the web. You just need to know whom you
should be sharing it with. Firstly, do check the credibility of a website where
you are entering your account details and making online payments. Try to shop
only from reliable and reputable retailers online. Further, look out for
‘https’ on the address bar of your browser window once you are directed to the
payment gateway. Moreover, the sign of a closed padlock near the address bar of
your browser window indicates that a particular web page is safe to type in
your financial details, while an open padlock indicates that it is unsafe and
your keystrokes or communication are not encrypted.
Certainly, you should avoid
giving such details to friends, or any other stranger. No matter how
trustworthy a person is, your credit card details are highly unsafe in the
hands of one who is not responsible to maintain it. In fact, anybody apart from
you should not be having it. Moreover, typing in your credit card number and
sharing it with someone over the web comes with added risk of information theft
by someone who can sneak in between your communication and monitor your
keystrokes. Such occurrences are quite prevalent these days. Hackers use key
logger and spyware applications to target innocent Internet users.
Further, it is advisable to
use a powerful Internet security tool with two-way firewall for comprehensive
protection online.
0 comments:
Post a Comment