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Hi Everyone,
Just got the new email from Scambusters with some Great Holiday On-Line Shopping Tips. Enjoy!!
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Since we're in the holiday shopping season, we decided to
devote today's issue to helping you stay safe if and when you
do your holiday shopping online. We point you to our past
advice on safe online shopping, and then present 7 brand new
tips for shopping safely online during the holidays.
First though, we thought we'd point you to our most popular
Christmas pages last week:
Christmas Crafts for Charity
==} http://christmasmusings.com/christmas_crafts_for_charity.html
Six Recommendations for (Unusual) Gift Baskets...
That Don't Cost an Arm and a Leg.
==} http://www.wowchristmasgifts.com/giftbaskets.html
iDog: the Little Dog with the Big Sound
==} http://www.bestsellingchristmastoys.com/idog.html
10 Top Toys for Christmas 2005 (if you missed this last week)
==} http://www.wowchristmasgifts.com/toptoysforchristmas2005.html
Let's begin...
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7 New Tips for Safe Holiday Online Shopping
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We've written about safe online shopping several times before.
In fact, many subscribers have told us that this article is the
best article on shopping safely online they've seen anywhere,
so we recommend you read it now:
==} http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters57.html
Here's another article to check out -- these tips are just as
useful today as they were when we wrote them:
==} http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters18.html
This is also a good time of year to review our 21 tips to
protect yourself from credit card fraud:
==} http://www.scambusters.org/CreditCardFraud.html
We now want to offer 7 new additional tips for safer online
shopping:
1. Don't use a debit card for online shopping. If there is a
problem, a debit card could give phishers or hackers access to
your entire checking and/or savings account. Plus, most debit
cards don't have the same protections that credit cards offer.
2. Make sure all of your security software is up-to-date before
you do your online shopping. That includes anti-virus
software, anti-spyware software, and firewalls.
Viruses
==} http://www.scambusters.org/viruses.html
Spyware
==} http://www.scambusters.org/spyware/
Firewall
==} http://www.scambusters.org/firewall.html
3. Use a separate email account for your online shopping. You
can set up a free email account on Google's Gmail or Yahoo, among
others.
==} http://gmail.com
==} http://mail.yahoo.com
4. Check the privacy policy of any website you plan to purchase
from. Make sure they have a privacy policy, that your data
stay private to the merchant, and that they don't sell or rent
your information to third parties.
5. Never enter personal information into a pop-up screen.
Unauthorized pop-up screens can be created by identity thieves
and the screen may be completely unrelated to the websites you
are visiting. Legitimate companies don't ask you to enter
personal or financial information on pop-up screens.
6. Never respond to emails asking you to "confirm" recent
transactions after you shop. These are phishing scams that
coincidentally are sent around the time you shop. For more on
phishing, visit:
==} http://www.scambusters.org/phishing.html
7. Trust your instincts. If you feel something isn't right,
investigate more or buy from another vendor.
Finally, the FTC now offers a new online safety website in
Spanish which includes information about online shopping for
the holidays. If you know people who might benefit, send them
to:
==} http://alertaenlinea.gov/index_es.html
That's it for today. Enjoy your week -- and your holiday
shopping.
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