I have advice for those who are out there indulging in some online shopping. I recently bought a unique wall sign with a personalized message included. Luckily I knew a couple tricks and things to look for because I almost got stung!
Somewhere I had seen that in order to verify that a company is secure I need to make sure there is a padlock symbol up next to the address bar. I always make sure it is there before any of my personal information gets entered. Of course we are all leery of entering our financial information on a site, especially site that we have not tried yet!
One tidbit I saw on a site was that when I am entering payment information I should see the address for the site go from a http to a shttp or a https. Apparently that little s is meant to tell me the site is secure, or at least that portion of the site. The word "encrypted" always makes me smile, too. Anything that will help to keep my payment and transaction information between me and the seller is much appreciated.
Just as I was about to start typing like mad and entering my credit card information for that personalized sign, I stopped and looked around. There was neither padlock sign nor an extra s anywhere to be seen. I stopped and took a moment to look up some information on the company. I had a couple sites pop up that were not fan sites!
Casey Stinchcombe is an entrepreneur and self proclaimed online shopping addict, the perfect combination to help others make the most of their online shopping experiences.
