Watching out for online shopping scams

Shopping online is convenient and easy but can also be dangerous if you provide personal banking or credit card information to an online e-commerce site. Take your time, confirm the website is legitimate and secure, and as always, if the deal is too good to believe, it probably is. 
 

• Avoid making purchases and banking transactions — or any communication that conveys a password, account number, or credit card number — unless you are certain that you are on a secure site and connection (i.e., https://).

• When shopping online, check out the website before entering your credit card number or other personal information. 

• Read the privacy policy and look for opportunities to opt out of information sharing. (If there is no privacy policy posted, beware! Shop elsewhere.)

• Learn how to tell when a website is secure. Look for "https" in the address bar or an unbroken padlock icon at the bottom of the browser window. These are signs that the information you transmit is encrypted (or scrambled), protecting it from hackers as it moves across the internet.