Newswise — This is the year! With gasoline prices skyrocketing and free time at a premium, this is an ideal time to try holiday shopping on line. Consumers can find a wider variety of goods and sizes online than in most stores. As an added incentive, especially close to the holidays, online merchants offer free shipping with a minimum order and those orders usually come quickly.
Margie Martyn, professor of mathmatics and computer science at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio (and a dedicated online shopper), offers sage advice for novices. Shopping online can be safe, she says, as long as you take a few precautions.
"¢ Make sure that your computer has virus and spyware protection software. Virus protection software is inexpensive and spyware protection (such as SpyBot) is free and can be downloaded from the Web. Spyware is a program, often installed with another downloaded program. It then gathers information about usage and sends it to another party all without a user's knowledge.
"¢ Turn off your computer when it is not in use. If you have cable or a DSL line, a hacker using tracking programs, might be able to grab your information eventually.
"¢ Shop only with companies which have secure Web sites. They should have one of three indicators: "VeriSign" logo (a big red checkmark), a URL address that begins with "https" or a lock icon at the bottom of the page. Don't submit your credit card information unless you see one of these verifications. Every site also should have address and phone contact information.
"If there is no such information, that's a big red flag," Martyn says.
"¢ Change your password frequently. Use at least six characters and use a combination of letters and numbers. She suggests adjusting a password, even by one or two characters, every three months for added protection.
Martyn recommends setting up a free e-mail account on yahoo or msn. which you use only for shopping. "Many companies require your e-mail information as part of your account information," she says. "Then they sell those addresses to spammers." She also suggests using a separate credit card only for online shopping to make it easier to track purchases.
"Read the EULA," she cautions. The End Users Licensing Agreement tells a user, among other things, how the information a customer provides is used, where that information is shared and how the site is secured. At any site, Martyn says, there should be an option not to receive e-mails.
Although she firmly believes in the ease and safety of online shopping, the frequency of identity theft (whether online or offline) leads her to check her credit status regularly.
"New laws allow people to receive a free credit report once a year from each of three agencies. She recommends staggering those checks among the three sites (every four months) and thereby checking personal credit status three times a year.
Martyn has made an extensive study of identity theft. She suggests that consumers check the government web site, http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft. It not only lists ways to avoid identify theft, but offers information on where and how to report suspected identify theft.
Just a few precautions can make shopping online a pleasurable experience. Inclement weather doesn't interfere with shopping, online stores never close and, as a number of online outlets like to say, "you can shop in your 'jammies.'" Martyn heartily recommends it.
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