Tips for Safer Online Shopping

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The holidays are almost upon us, and online shopping is about to go into overdrive. An estimated 114 million consumers will turn to the Internet for at least part of their holiday shopping this year, according to Jupiter Research. With the rush comes increased risk of identity theft, credit card fraud, and other types of online consumer scams, experts warn.

Already, scams involving the hard-to-find TMX Elmo toy are circulating around the Internet. At several online forums, shoppers are complaining about eBay sellers taking money for the popular toy, and then vanishing before delivering the goods. Similarly, Sony Computer Entertainment America is warning online shoppers not to purchase preorder discount offers for the gaming console PlayStation 3 from certain Web sites that are misleading consumers.

"People spend more time and money online this time of year," says David Perry, director of global education for Trend Micro. Scammers, he says, know this all too well and fine-tune their scams to catch holiday shoppers off guard.

Perry says people let their defenses down during the rush to buy gifts. He cautions against having too much holiday "good will" when shopping online, and notes that there tends to be an uptick in scams, spam, and malware attacks during the holiday season. MX Logic reports that during the months of September through November e-mail recipients clicked on an average of 12 to 26 phishing messages a week, compared to an average of 7 per week during the rest of the year. MX Logic attributes increased clicks to an onslaught of holiday-related spam containing phishing lures.

Consumer groups such as the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairs are also warning shoppers to take extra care.

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Tips for Safe Online Holiday Shopping
Update your Web browsing software.
The latest versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox have been updated to include beefed-up security. Both include antiphishing features to protect against fake sites that attempt to trick users into divulging their log-ins or financial information.

Firefox's default protection stops at comparing sites against a known blacklist of phishing sites. IE 7 includes site analysis that will try to warn you about a suspicious site even if it's not yet on a blacklist.

Scrutinize that e-mail message that purports to be from your favorite retailer.
Volumes of spam spike considerably over the holidays, and with that increase come higher volumes of phishing e-mail, says Mary McEvoy, spokesperson for the Internet security firm SonicWall. Last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 750 million phishing e-mails were sent worldwide, SonicWall reported.

MX Logic says the volume of spam from legitimate online retailers jumps 20 percent between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And what about ill-intentioned spam? MX Logic says the difference between this year and last is that a greater percentage of spam this year is malicious, rather than simply being a nuisance.

Experts advise keeping your guard up even when you receive e-mails from familiar firms like Amazon.com and Lands' End. Cybercrooks are getting more cunning at making their messages look legit: That e-mail from Amazon asking you to update your billing information or confirm your order could be a fake.

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Shop in the right frame of mind.
Don't shop when you're tired, under pressure, or distracted, the Better Business Bureau advises. You need to be fully "cyber-aware," it says. A clear head prevents you from getting hoodwinked into buying something online that seems to be too good a deal to pass up.

Do your homework on the vendor you're about to do business with. The BBB lets you run a background check on thousands of Web merchants at its site. You should do a Google search of the online store you're considering patronizing, to see what the Web community is saying about it. If the search results spit back vitriol, that should serve as a red flag to pass on that merchant.

Background checks are also advisable for online stores that you find using comparison shopping engines. Even if such a shopping engine gives a merchant a positive rating, you should do your own research and not rely just on ratings found on one site.

Pay attention to details.
Check your browser's address window to see whether a Web site's "product checkout" page begins with 'https' instead of 'http.' Also check whether the checkout page displays a padlock icon in the lower right-hand border of the browser window. Both of these things indicate that the site is using secure encryption to protect your credit card information.

If an online retailer displays a seal from Truste or the Better Business Bureau, that's a good sign that the merchant in question is reliable. But be sure to click on the logo or seal to make sure it actually links to the BBB or Truste site, to validate that the seal is authentic. It the logo doesn't link back to the appropriate site, look the merchant up yourself on the BBB or Truste site.

Make a paper trail--and check it twice.
Make sure to print copies of all online receipts so that you can check them against your credit card statement. You should also print copies of all guarantees and warranties.

Pay with your credit card whenever possible. Most credit card companies won't hold you liable for fraudulent purchases.

Beware of charity fraud.
This is the time of year when charity fraud becomes popular with scammers. Charity scams spring up after disasters, but they also assume a larger presence during the holiday season. Be careful of charity frauds that use names that sound similar to legitimate organizations and may be using the logos of legitimate charities.