Finance Harbor

Monday, August 27, 2007

Is Shopping Online Secure?

by: Linda Quinones

Is shopping online becoming popular and safe enough for you and I to do the vast majority of our shopping on the Internet?

As I contemplated, the first thought that came to mind was will they come and will they spend money? Sure people are always curious and some will visit but will they stay long enough to spend some money?

Safety was the first concern of those I had spoken to, they were somewhat skeptical and therefore reluctant to make any online purchases. It is our responsibility as online marketers to convince them to about the safety of online shopping.

We all know about the convenience of getting on the computer and viewing the sale that retailers are using to entice the shoppers into making a commitment. But are not always as eager to go ahead and complete the purchase online.

The internet today is as safe or safer than making purchase in person, I recently read an article where BJ Wholesalers was fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for not having sufficient security to protect Credit Card users.

Most of the buying we do today is pay for by either a credit card or a debit card. So If you think that when you purchase gas and pay for it at the pump with your credit card or debit card that you are making a safe purchase think again.

I recently purchase gas at my favorite gas station and paid for it at the pump with my debit card, only to find out two weeks later when the bank call me to question some of purchases that were charge to my debit card.

It seems that somebody was making purchases that were very uncharacteristic for me. And the institution where I have been banking for many years was able to detect this and all my money was refunded and a new card issued.

I was fortunate in the incident just described, but back to online shopping, most of the retailers that do business online have very good security to protect the buyers. After all they would rather you make your purchases online,

Online shopping is much more profitable for the stores and safer and besides no shoplifting takes place on the internet, so the store want to protect this revenue source by making it safe as well as convenient.

Another willing partner is the credit card companies themselves they want you and I to continue using the plastic, and are doing all they can to protect the credit card user.

In our website we have a page titled credit card fraud protection, with direct links to the major credit card companies website and anti fraud page, so that shoppers can read what the credit card companies are doing to protect them from fraud and identity theft.

As more and more people become aware of the security measures being undertaken to protect them, they will avail themselves of the convenience of doing their shopping online and use the time they save for pleasure and family activities.

People today are always in a hurry and don't usually have time to wait on long lines for cashier to ring them up, when they can accomplish the same thing without leaving the house.

This is more attractive to younger active people would rather play a round of golf or a couple of sets of tennis than fight the maddening crowds.