When Shopping online

FACT !The FTC estimates that over 9 million

Americans had their identities stolen in 2008.

And more than 3 million of us reported

misuse of one or more of existing credit card

accounts.

•http://www.discovercard.com/credit-card-resources/credit-card-safety.shtml

How to Keep Your Money Safe !

1. Secure Your Computer

The last thing you should ever do is shop online with a computer that’s

riddled with spyware or key logging software.  Some of these viruses and

malicious software applications look specifically for transmitted credit card

information, so if you buy items with your credit card on a computer that

you’re not certain is free of viruses or spyware, you will be placing your

credit card information at risk.

2. Secure Your Browser

Once you know your computer is clean of any malicious software, the next

level of security that you need to enable is your browser. There are many

different browsers to consider, but for the sake of this article I’ll consider the

two most popular, Internet Explorer and Firefox.  If you’ve already installed

Spyware Terminator above, then you’ve likely discovered the Web Security

guard add-on in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, which gets installed

automatically.

When you’re shopping on any website and you want to make a purchase,

you simply click on the Web Security Guard button in the Crawler toolbar,

and you’re alerted as to whether the site is reported safe or not.

3. Use Common Sense When Shopping Online

So you’ve cleaned up your computer, you’ve installed extra security through

browser add-ons, what else can you do to keep your credit card information

safe online?  Simple – use common sense.  When you’re looking for

products to buy online, always make sure that there’s a phone number or

some other method to contact someone from the company. Never provide

your credit card information through an anonymous online form that offers

you no way to interact with a real person.

Additionally, all browsers are configured these days with a notification that

you’re on a secure website, meaning the transmitted data is encrypted so

that nothing in the “middle” can view the data.  You know that the

connection is secure when you see the “lock” icon in the lower bar of your

browser.

4. Get your credit card statements online

Keep your private information private. Reduce the paper trail of confidential

information coming in to your mailbox and sign up to receive your credit

card statements online. Instead of your statement arriving by mail, making it

vulnerable to theft, you receive an e-mail alert letting you know your monthly

statement is ready. To see your statement, you log in to your secure credit

card Web site by entering your password and User ID.

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