Safe online shopping

The internet is an exciting place to shop. You can browse to buy anything, from a new camera, to a holiday or flight. Don't be restricted to the stores in your locality, or even country rather you can pick up deals at great prices on a whole range of products through any reputed shopping sites.

Shopping online is not an easy or safe as handing your credit card in a store or restaurant. So, if you take care of certain things it can be a safe deal. Below are the things you should take care:

• Never respond to an email request for credit card details. All fraud companies will conduct transactions with you over a secure website connection.
• Never respond to any email advertisement, and only visit sites you know or have book marked, and verify the address before browsing further.
• Only buy from trusted brands and websites.e.g:-eBay,naptol,indiatimes,rediff,sify,zapak etc.
• Only does business with legal companies check to see if they have a contact number, an existing retail store and a printed catalog to browse.
• Always check a website's privacy policy before going ahead with a purchase.
• Entering your details through a secure payment connection. You should notice when you click through to the transaction page of a company's website that the URL in the address bar begins https:// (instead of the normal http ://). This is the standard encrypted communication mechanism on the internet and means that your credit card details are being sent securely.
• Beware of deals that seem too good to be true.
• The internet may not the best place to buy clothes or other products. The best way to buy products you need to see, touch or try on.
• All reputable websites use secure payment systems. These are either a company's own system or a 3rd party system such as World pay or PayPal.
• When transaction over the internet, look at yellow padlock in the Grey status bar at the bottom of your browser page. This is an indication that the transaction is being conducted over a secure connection.
• As an extra precaution check to see if there's a gold lock at the bottom of the right hand corner of the browser. If they don't include any of these reliable indicators, you should think twice before handing over your credit card number.
• For your safety avoid Internet fraudsters, it's also a good idea to install and use security software such as Kaspersky Internet Security. It can provide you with industry-leading security services that will provide you more protection against the latest threats.