The Internet is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and offers shopping that can be just convenience as a supermarket or mail orders if you buy from a responsible and reputable business over a secure web-server. Your credit card information is protected by encryption during transmission and cannot be seen by anyone ¡V not even the seller in some cases. But it is important that you know who you're conducting business with, what security features they offer, their privacy policy, and their return or refund procedure. Criminals are making use of the convenient shopping business to exploit their victims. Many victims pay their money in e-auction but cannot get what they have purchased. On the other hand, e-shop operators have failed to receive the money after they have delivered their goods as criminals are using either forged or stolen payment cards to settle their purchases.

Safety Tips

 
• Do check the terms and disclaimers of an e-shopping site before acquiring its service, e.g. check statements for personal privacy.
 
• Do choose e-shopping sites of providing well-known or trusted services.
 
• Do notice key measures on providing information or making purchasing on a web site:   
         
  • Informed consent on personal information
       
  • Seals of Approval applied (e.g. TRUSTe or WebTrust)   
 
• Do check security of e-commerce website before submitting                           personal information and transaction (e.g. SSL, https, lock icon in browser, the issuing authority of certificate)
 
• Do apply for a Digital Certificate for electronic transactions
 
• Do consider using Encryption to protect sensitive data transmitted over public networks and the Internet.
 
• Do keep transaction records. Most e-commerce sites present you with a summary of your transaction before you click a Send or Buy button. Print this out or save it as a file to refer to later if necessary.
 
• Do avoid submitting any data that is irrelevant for the purposes for which it is being collected. Be particularly cautious if asked for personal information, such as credit card or bank account numbers.
 
• Do be alert to the latest news on sites that are famous for suspicious or labeled as "bad sites".
 
• Don't download data from doubtful sources.
 
• Don't try to visit untrustworthy sites out of curiosity
 
• Don't forget to check the privacy policy of a web site, ensuring that the personal data you provided is properly used and protected.