Safe Online Shopping on Cyber Monday
It’s almost Cyber Monday, so tell me something – why do you shop online? Because it’s super convenient? Or because you get better pricing? Maybe it’s because you’re allergic to hand-to-hand combat on Black Friday? I’m a huge fan of shopping online to save time, money and brain cells. But if you have bad surfing hygiene, you’re just asking identity thieves to go on a shopping spree with your money. And it’s so easy to avoid if you know how. Which you’re about to.
Thanks for joining me here on Sileo on Security, where we believe there’s no need to fear online shopping if you surf wisely. I want to share nine habits with you over the next three episodes that will keep your digital shopping cart safer than the real thing.
The first habit is just common sense. Please, stick to reputable websites with a proven track record. If you haven’t used the site in the past or if it isn’t a recognizable brand like Amazon, research before you buy! If you shop there in person, you’re probably safe online. When you buy only based on price, you generally get what you pay for. Cheap products, shipping charges, MALWARE! Also be careful about imposter websites with URLs that look almost exactly like the real one.
Next, always LOOK for the LOCK. If your browser doesn’t show a padlock in the URL bar and doesn’t start with the address HTTPS://, don’t fill out ANY forms or send ANY information via that website. The S in the address stands for secure, and everything else is just faking it! [No “S”, No $]
Third – you may get sick of hearing me say this one, but it’s so important to use strong passwords on all of your internet accounts. The easiest way for a hacker to spend your money is to crack your account because your password is your dog’s name, a word in the dictionary or something thieves can find on your MySpace profile. You don’t still have a MySpace profile?
Your One-Minute Mission today is quick and easy. Log in to the ecommerce websites you shop on most often – so for me, in order, I’d go to Amazon, Zappos, DaintyCandles.com, PayPal – you know, the usual suspects. Once you login, make your password longer and stronger than it already is. Just doing this, occasionally changing your passwords, makes thieves work a whole lot harder for those candles.
And then, as you always do, make sure that you tune in for the next episode of SOS, where I’ll give you intermediate steps to protect your online identity.
All of us at The Sileo Group wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!
John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.
i am a victum of identity theft and credit card fraud i was with the capital member credit card holder in the year of 2000 when they was suppose combine all them fraudulent cards that was in my name into one card capital one i only had on the card a 200 dollar spending limit and it was cars outr there in my name more than 100,000.00 dollars unsecure credit in my name and joghn look like the one who came to my door with another white man wanting to talk to my wife in private when the credit card that had my name keith luvoyrd griffin on it and tonya lynn griffin on the other that weeks the cards was ship to 202 west park apt b union mo 63084 i said no why you want to talk to her in private talk to bought of use so that person name joghn i said look like the 2 men that came to our door my wife said she did not get the cards and she told me that she had problem with her identity beeing stolen also. between july 10/2000 to july 21 the cards was supposed to been dilivered at the west park address unless she lyeing about not getting the cards when i ask were is my credit card i already told her it about 17 to 23 credits in my name i never received