Buy Online Safely

Your credit card details are extremely valuable, and it would be a disaster if they fell into unwanted hands. Every time you make an online purchase, your most sensitive information can be exposed by vulnerabilities in your router, in your devices, or on the websites where you are making your purchases. To help protect you, specialists from https://ip-locations.org/ is going to give you some tips on how to shop online safely.

Make sure the store is trustworthy

First, make sure the store you're buying from is legit. Unfortunately, phishing is a widespread practice on the web to try to obtain your bank details, and there are sites that reproduce almost identically the visual appearance of Amazon, Aliexpress, Abebooks, and many other prestigious online stores. It is especially important to avoid stores that advertise through spam! Don't fall into this trap and make sure that your online store has the SSL security certificate. You can check that it does if its address begins with "https" in the search bar of your browser - always avoid addresses that only begin with HTTP!

Don't give away too much data

When buying online, the only information you need to provide to set up your purchase is your bank card, name, address and, occasionally, a phone number and a contact email. No other data. If a website starts asking you for your social security number, your tax identification number and other eccentric data, be suspicious. This is extremely sensitive information that you should never give out to unknown institutions, let alone buy a pair of boots or a phone bag. Always keep your eyes open for this type of abusive practice.

Keep your PC or Mac free of malware

Now that we've made sure that the sites you visit are trustworthy, let's check the other end of the connection: your own devices and networks. There's no point in shopping at the world's most robust store if your PC or Mac has serious vulnerabilities. It's essential that you keep them free of viruses and malware by using a state-of-the-art, up-to-date antivirus. Here's a list of some of the best in 2019.

Use strong passwords

When your devices are clean, make sure your passwords are secure too. Your email, Steam account, or your own router are extremely vulnerable if your passwords are 1234, admin, or your cat's name. It's a good idea to use a complex password so that it's unbreakable, especially on your router and on any user accounts associated with your credit or debit card. If you need a random password generator, you can try this one.

Don't leave your passwords in the browser

This is one of the most common mistakes we make when shopping online. When we have a thousand different passwords that are difficult to remember: one for personal mail, another for work mail, another to access the university intranet, another for Amazon, another to access our bank... One resource we use out of laziness is usually to let the browser store them and remember them for us, but this is very dangerous. If you leave them like that, anyone accessing your devices could easily make purchases from your accounts and deplete your bank balance. Keeping it written down on a piece of paper is not a good solution either - don't let convenience make you vulnerable! Try to memorize your strong passwords to make them virtually unhackable.

Use a secure Wi-Fi network

But even the best of passwords, even if you have memorized them and they are not recorded anywhere else, can be exposed if the connection you are using is not properly encrypted. When shopping online, always make sure you use a Wi-Fi connection that is secure. Avoid public networks such as those in cafes, libraries, universities or airports. In many cases they are not encrypted and can have hundreds, even thousands of devices connected at the same time. Just one device connected to malware can put all others at risk. It's better to wait a few hours to get home and make your purchase more securely from your own network.

Use a VPN

One way to take your security to the next level is to always use a VPN. Services like NordVPN will ensure a maximum level of encryption on all information you transmit and receive on your device, even if you connect from open networks. It's a great way to increase your security when shopping, especially when you're on the road, both at home and abroad. Sometimes we don't have a secure Wi-Fi network at our fingertips and have no choice but to connect to the Internet via the Wi-Fi in our hotel, cafe or train station. In these cases, a VPN is an extraordinary guarantee of security and a real lifesaver for our connection.

Use a virtual credit card

Finally, if your bank has this service, it would not be out of place to use a virtual credit card to make your purchases online. A virtual credit card consists of a credit or debit card number that is associated with MasterCard or VISA but is not directly linked to your bank account, but to a virtual wallet where you can charge the credit you plan to spend at any time. If you only want to spend $50 for a one-time purchase, you can simply charge that amount and, in case your data is exposed, you would only risk losing that $50, leaving the rest of your accounts intact. Always remember that, when it comes to online shopping, prevention is always better than cure.