Online Shopping Safety Guide
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Visa has a few more tips for protecting your identity while shopping on-line.
- Do not share your user names or passwords.
- Use only secure Internet browsers that allow secure transmission of data -look for the closed padlock symbol in the bottom right corner of your screen and the ‘https’ prefix in the website address line.
- Only give your credit card details when you initiate a purchase.
- Keep a record of your transactions, either by keeping your email confirmations or by writing down the confirmation numbers provided by the merchant.
- Carefully check each of your monthly credit card and bank statements and look for unauthorized purchases and withdrawals.
- Confirm the retailer’s delivery and return policies before you make a purchase.
- Never respond to an unsolicited email request for personal or account information, even if it appears to be from a trusted source.
- Never send payment information, including credit card numbers or bank account information by email.
- Enroll in the Verified by Visa (VbV) service. VbV helps ensure purchases made online at participating merchants such as Air Canada, Future Shop, Birks, La Senza, Dell Canada and Best Buy, are made by the actual cardholder through the use of a personal password.
- Educate yourself about online shopping and safety at http://www.visa.ca/en/personal/securewithvisa/shoppingtips.cfm.
- Choose difficult passwords. Avoid using ones that are easy to guess such as your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, or telephone number.
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Comments
There is an easy and free and totally safe way to shop smart and secure online – - use a credit card from Citibank or Bank of America or Discover or your PayPal account and they will generate a “virtual one-time-use-number” for you to use at check-out. This way you do not have to share your card details with any merchant. The charges are linked to your real account and you maintain the same protections and legal rights as if you used the real card number. Each of these companies has a unique name for their version of the product: “Virtual Account Numbers” at Citi, “ShopSafe” at Bank of America, “Secure Online Account Numbers” at Discover and “Secure Cards” at PayPal. Go to the company websites and check it out. You can enroll for free and then shop without fear of exposing your personal financial/card data.
There is another easy and free and totally safe way to shop smart and secure online – - use a credit card from Citibank or Bank of America or Discover or your PayPal account and they will generate a “virtual one-time-use-number” for you to use at check-out. This way you do not have to share your card details with any merchant. The charges are linked to your real account and you maintain the same protections and legal rights as if you used the real card number. Each of these companies has a unique name for their version of the product: “Virtual Account Numbers” at Citi, “ShopSafe” at Bank of America, “Secure Online Account Numbers” at Discover and “Secure Cards” at PayPal. Go to the company websites and check it out. You can enroll for free and then shop without fear of exposing your personal financial/card data.