How to make online shopping safer

Online shopping is the new normal. Looking for a birthday present for a five-year-old? Click, click, done. Searching for that bestselling book at a cheaper price? Click, click, done. Can’t be bothered fighting for a car space at your local supermarket? Click, click, done.

It’s beyond easy; it can be done from your phone, your lounge or your comfy bed. What’s not to love?

It’s simple, sure. But it’s also simple for cybercriminals to tap into your details online. A bit like if you were to walk around your local shopping centre with all your details typed in nice big letters on the front and back of your shirt.

Beware of the latest cybertricks

If you’ve ever used an online auction website or retail store (we’re not mentioning any names … but you can probably think of one or two), your details can be exposed in a few ways. Namely:

• Scammers selling a product super cheaply – just so they can pinch your credit card or bank details.
• Clicking on links in emails – phony emails are surprisingly common, with hackers adept at creating fake logos that closely resemble the real thing.
• Using an unsecure website – fake websites sometimes don’t offer any security protection, meaning your details can be sold between networks of cybercriminals without you even knowing.
• Competition and fake charity websites.

There are a lot more (cunning) ways crooks can steal your info, but the bottom line is this: it’s easier than you think for your personal details to go missing online.

If it’s too good to be true, it usually is …

Let us share a story about a woman we’ll call Alice. Alice is a busy professional from inner-city Melbourne and is an avid fan of the internet shopping revolution. (Well, she’s not. She’s not even a real person, but she’s about to say what so many people have said to us before …)

“During my lunch breaks, I love surfing the latest specials online. If I want a new outfit, I don’t think twice about clicking through deals until I find what I want – a few clicks and it will turn up in my mail box in a few days.”

It was all a simple pleasure until scammers targeted Alice. “I received a few emails from a clothes website that looked exactly like my style, and the garments were significantly cheaper than my usual purchases.” Choosing a few dresses, Alice waited for her new purchases. “After a week, I went back to the website to check my order. It was then I realised I’d been duped: the website wasn’t there any more, and a broken link was in its place.”

While people like Alice are lucky in the sense that they don’t lose their personal data, they do lose a few hundred dollars from an offer that simply was too good to be true.

Swap a coffee for security

Online shopping is the new normal, and it doesn’t have to be risky. Identity Watch helps you protect your personal information – for the cost of a coffee a month. We help by making sure your details don’t appear anywhere they shouldn’t. If we see your name, your bank details, your address in any odd places, we let you know.

We’re different to a bank in that we strike before the iron is hot, as we want to help stop your details from being used in the first place.

In the meantime, remember these helpful hints to keep your online shopping experiences safe:

• If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Only transfer money on websites that start with ‘https’ (that means it’s a secure site) – the address bar should display a small image of a closed padlock.
• If (like in Alice’s case), you don’t know of the company before they contact you – it’s probably dodgy – even if it’s offering designer ware. Anyone can make a website these days.
• Sign up for Identity Watch so you know when things might go wrong.