Safe Online Shopping Tips from Personal Experience
Retail
therapy is only therapeutic if you're doing it right. The virtual market of
goods is filled with scammers, and we totally condemn the act. In hopes to help
our reader we have made a collection of useful tips, we have shopped from
retailers, direct sellers and even deals websites. What you are about to read
is indeed based on personal experience.
Stop
Clicking Pop-ups:
Like
the state of being in love, online shopping makes us do stupid things that we
know are not right in a rational mind. One of these irrational mistakes is
clicking on the pop-ups.
Pop-ups
are the most comprehensive path to being a victim of cat fishing even if these
are advertising genuine or branded products. On online websites, especially
blog post, there is a difference pop-up and affiliated links. The author
inserts affiliated links to review and recommend the product or the service
through their blog. Affiliated links are genuine and take you to a safe site
for the purchase.
Bloggers/
authors are too conscious inserting these links so it is unlikely that it would
lead you an unsafe page.
On the
other hand, pops ups are genuinely virus which can save your computer data/
information, duplicate your IP, or install a virus that can damage your windows
even with one click. Pop-ups are made attracted to catch lines, promises and
pictures that will remind you of a fancy unicorn. Regardless of how tempting
the pop-ups appear, never click the ad.
Too
Good To Be True Deals:
The
Internet is the parallel universe of never-ending scam possibilities where it
takes an hour for any seller to create an authentic seller's appearance.
However, the most prominent sign of fake sellers is that they offer too good to
be true deals. These deals are so cheap that even the wholesale price exceeds
it. Too good to be true deals usually appear on the discount and coupons websites, where you have to be careful.
In
99.9% cases, these sellers send fake and defected pieces to the customers, and
then you will never hear from them again. These websites are even more
dangerous if you pay through credit card. Once you have paid the amount, you
will never get a refund, and your account becomes a target for easy theft, only
leaving you with online shopping trauma.
Speaking
from personal experience, no matter how sophisticated and organized the website
is with the grammatically correct content, do not shop from a place offering
too good to be true deals at all cost? Save sanity, spend a little more money.
Revert
to Trusted Sellers:
Getting
backstabbed hurts right? Then why would you shop from fishy sellers and get
backstabbed multiple times? Shopping as a retail therapy only works when you
receive desired products within the promised time or is just another heartbreak.
Trusted
sellers should always be your first choice for a good shopping experience.
There are two kinds of trusted seller you can shop from as much as you desired.
The first kind is the retail sellers who own the products, i.e. the brand shop
and the second kind are the deals websites who partner up and generate several
types of deals with discounts for you. The deal generating websites offer you
prices at almost a wholesale rate.
Giving
a chance to new sellers is a good idea. To save yourself from a significant
loss, it is always recommended to first shop a low cost, insignificant product
to check the seller's authenticity.
Use
Secure Connections:
Using
secure connections means that the internet connection and the IPs address are
secure, especially if you are making online transactions. It is unlikely that
today use café computers to shop online, however, avoid using open networks (of
malls and restaurants especially) for online shopping.
To
Save Password or Not to Save:
You
probably have heard that saving your passwords for shopping accounts is a bad
idea. However, saving passwords and billing address on your phone is not a big
deal. It's okay because otherwise, you are unlikely to remember every unique
password. What's important is that you should be concerned about your credit
card security to prevent identity theft. For that never to save your credit
card and bank details on the website.
Learn
From Other People Mistakes:
If you
have learned something from congratulations at the end of this article, you
have started to learn from other people's mistakes; a smart move. Another
source where you can learn from people's mistake is the general customers'
reviews, excluding the professionals and bloggers.
Even if
a brand has a good reputation and marketing, reviews can help you get a clear
perspective about the situation. If you can't find online reviews, especially
ask about it and whenever you come to a bad shopping experience, post a review
to help others.
Related: What You Need to Know About Online vs. In-Store Shopping
