Online Shopping & Internet Marketing

Online consumers spend billions of dollars each year, and as online shopping becomes more and more favored, the major reason why there are still some people who would rather not shop online is shopping security. Here are some guidelines, which you could use to make sure that your security, privacy and rights will be protected when shopping on the internet.

1. Make sure that you are aware of the currency exchange rate before purchasing any international merchandise.

2. Know the delivery cost and time frame before you even place your order. A lot of shopping websites make use of couriers in the delivery of goods. Also, overseas delivery could be expensive.

3. Before placing a bid on eBay, make sure that you will be checking the feedback of the buyers and sellers. Make this your standard as you go on eBay.

4. Always, always, always read the FAQs of the website carefully.

5. If the company or individual you are buying from asks for cash as payment, say no. Using your credit card for payments would be able to protect you from fraudulent transactions. This is because credit card companies are able to issue refunds if there would be any proven fraudulent activity on your account.

6. View the contact page of the buyer. Verify if their postal address is on there. If it is not, do not do business with them.

7. If you have questions, ask. Genuine sellers are helpful and there are even shopping websites that have customer feedback forms.

8. Read twice the company’s terms and conditions, as well as their privacy policy.

9. Try searching the company in Google or any search engine to know more about the company from comments and reviews from other consumers.

10. If you still feel unsure on shopping online, then you could probably try shopping the conventional way. You need not force yourself on something that you are uncertain of. However, do not shy away from online shopping altogether. Eventually, you would realize that it could provide a truly worthwhile experience.

This article is written neither to promote nor criticize the Paypal online mode of payment. With the rapid growth in the number of Paypal users, frauds and email scams on Paypal accounts has become more frequent and severe. Our network team has put together a report on the current Paypal frauds and Paypal email scams being perpetuated by various groups of fraudsters. We also offer advice for users of Paypal to help them reduce the chances of becoming victims of such frauds and scams. As the usage of the internet has increased in handling online transactions, both buyers and sellers need to become aware of safe practices to operate online payments or online receipt of funds.

To access a Paypal account you need to have the username and password of the account. The username of a Paypal account is the main email address (primary email address) used to register the account. The owner of the account would also set up a password to be used along with the username to access the account. The security system is quite secure as long as the username and password of the Paypal account are known only to the actual owner of the account. If these details are available to anyone else it would mean that the security of that Paypal account has been compromised. Anyone acquiring the username and password of any Paypal account can access and perform all functions that the actual owner of the account could do.

In this article we will try to explain in simple terms how confidential login information of an actual Paypal account owner can be robbed and misused. We will then provide important and simple suggestions that would reduce the chances of such a fraud being committed on your Paypal account.

(a) Being careless with your information: This type of Paypal fraud can be committed very easily and does not require too much effort on the part of the fraudster. Users very often write down their login details for various websites with the fear of forgetting them. Anyone having access to these written details can login to the Paypal account and treat the account as if it was his own. Another possibility that could easily open a Paypal account to fraud is when the user selects a very simple or easy password that can be easily guessed. People with bad intentions need to make a few guesses before they arrive at the correct password to enter the Paypal account. These are the simplest ways in which a Paypal fraud can be committed and they do not require any email scam to be done.

(b) Identity theft through a Paypal email scam: Paypal phishing or identity theft as it is commonly known, involves an attempt by a fraudster to extract the login details of a Paypal account from the actual owner of the account. Armed with these detais, the fraudster can be very dangerous as full control of the Paypal account can be excercised.  In this case, emails will be randomly sent to many email addresses informing the receiver of a certain activity in their Paypal account. For these Paypal email scams to work, the receiver of the email will need to login to his Paypal account by clicking a link on the email. The exact contents of each Paypal email scam might differ but the objective remains the same. Once the user clicks the link in the email, he is taken to a web page that closely resembles a regular Paypal login page. This page is infact a fake and is hosted by the fraudster (not Paypal) with the sole purpose of collecting confidential login details from the actual owner of the Paypal account. If the owner of the Paypal account falls for this trick, his account will soon be operated by the fraudster and this could lead to heavy losses. Attempts to phish Paypal accounts have become quite common and each time a fraudster unleashes his cruel trick a number of innocent Paypal accounts become victims.