Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce that allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. As e-commerce took an exponential boom in India. As the growth of e-commerce was rapid many fraudsters and scamsters also took the wrong advantage by loopholes of the system of e-commerce where they created Identity theft, Pagejacking, Chargeback fraud, Triangulation fraud, Affiliate fraud, Supplier Identity fraud, Email account phishing, etc. These examples are the most common frauds and thefts in India. But today I will share my personal tips for online shopping which prefer to use every time while shopping online:-
- Make sure you use your Mobile phone, Laptop, or PC while ordering a particular product from websites. Many people use other people’s devices to order products or order them from internet cafes. You may not know that the person could get your email address and password used in particular websites. They may also get your bank details. For this, you need to take precautions like always use new unique passwords while using new websites and always log out if you have used any other person’s device to order your products, and never save or share your password on another person’s device.
2.Make sure you do not use any public wifi or internet cafe wifi because they can steal your data from internet networks too. You should use your cellular mobile data or personal wifi through which you can be assured that no one is stealing your personal data. Wi-Fi hacking or wifi attacks have become common in India and the main reason for this is people think they are getting free data to use when public wifi is without a password or free but scamsters willingly give you free wifi to get into your device and get all your sensitive data. So stop being easy prey for hackers and protect your data from them.
3.Always find a legitimate website to buy products. You should check the following things in websites:- 1.>> Only trust the website if it’s encrypted for which you should look on the URL bar where you should find a padlock symbol where it says Connection is secure which means Your information( for example password or credit card numbers) is private when it is sent to this site. So you should be looking for that on a website. 2.>>When you select a website that is secured then you should go and find terms and conditions policies and read them thoroughly. The website should have policies like return policy, the refund policy, and other security policies that ensure that it’s a legit website.3.>> You should also know about the customer care or customer support of the website for which you just need to see if they have a live chat system, the offering of 24-hour phone support or getting messages and emails from brands if you register from them shows if the website care about the customers, etc helps you know more about the customer support of the website.
4.Make sure you use offer while payment methods. Many digital wallets and online payment gateways provide many offers and discount coupons. When you pay through your debit and credit card you get some discounts and offers but when you pay through digital wallets like Google pay, Phonepe, etc you should get many discounts, offers, coupons, and even cash back. So I recommend you to use payment gateways which give you offers and discounts. As it is your choice to use it or not.
Hope these tips help you. Thank you!