One of the leading factors that inhibits the growth of online shopping is the fact that consumers are still concerned about security and confidentiality associated with the online shopping world.
While we recognise that there are evil perpetrators out there who are looking to take advantage of the naive Internet user, it is important to remember that most reputable online shopping websites where online transactions are concluded take a very proactive stance on Internet Security. However, here are some basic safe shopping guidelines that online shoppers can follow to ensure that their online shopping experience is fun, comfortable, safe and secure.
1. Reputation: Make sure the website that you are dealing with is reputable and has a positive reputation amongst its community. See if they offer testimonials, references or a forum whereby its users can openly post notes about their experience on that particular website.
2. Ratings & Testimonials: If the website you are transacting with provides a platform whereby buyers can purchase from various sellers in an e-Commerce environment, check if the website offers a rating system that allows users to rate one another based on their experiences. The more you can find out about the people you are conducting trades with the better judgment you will have in order to make informed purchasing decisions.
3. Guard Your Password: Don’t give your personal information or login details such as username and passwords to anyone. Even the owners of the website that you are dealing with should never ask you for your password. While your username may be visible to everyone, your password is not and it should always remain completely confidential.
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4. Beware of Phishing Scams: Beware of Phishing scam artists. Phishing is a type of e-mail scam designed to steal your personal data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information. These con artists design e-mail messages that appear to come from the websites that you trust, requesting you to provide them with personal information. The important thing to remember is that there is no reason for anyone to request your personal details if you have already registered on a site and disclosed this information in a secure environment.
5. Protect Your Credit Card: The most common type of online fraud is credit card theft. So make sure never to disclose your credit card details to anyone over the telephone, in e-mails or on sms. Furthermore, before concluding a purchase on any website where you disclose your credit card details, make sure that you are in a secure website. Ensure that the address in your browser address bar is an https website; this is where the https is in front of the URL indicating that you are now in a secure session. Look out for the yellow padlock icon that displays at the bottom right of your computer screen when you are trying to confirm if you are in a safe and secure online trading environment.
6. Avoid Pre-orders: Avoid paying upfront pre-ordered stock. Although to most of you this makes common sense you would be alarmed at the number of people that are caught out by this.
7. Warranties & Guarantees: Find out of the sellers or online stores offer any form of warranties, guarantees or buyer protection services. This reinforces the intention of trade between the buyer and seller and ultimately adds credibility to the seller and their items.
8. Too Good To Be True: Beware of deals that seem too good to be true. Be sure to do your research on the item that you are interested in buying and know the reasonable price range that you can expect to pay for an item. If an item seems too good to be true, it probably is.
9. Shipping Costs: Make sure that you are 100% comfortable that the seller is legitimate, that the seller’s ratings are good, that the shipping charges are reasonable and that the item’s description is a true reflection of what you are buying before making payment.
10. When In Doubt: The final and most important tip of all is, if at any stage you are not comfortable with any transaction, contact the website owners and discuss any concerns that you may have with them.
Online shopping is one of the most convenient and exciting ways to shop today and its ultimate explosion relies on how soon the majority of consumers get the elusive warm and fuzzy feeling about shopping online.
To find out more about buying or selling on bidorbuy, visit our how to buy or how to sell help sections. You can also read more about the bidorbuy safety and trust programme.
[wpramazon asin="B0048B08NG"]
JVZoo Product Feed
Aug 31, 2011 at 06:44:25
Wish this program came preinstalled on all PCs,
I wish I would have seen Amazon’s offering of this program instead of buying it directly from the developer website. The Amazon software is good for 3 users, whereas the developer’s software license charges the same amount for only a single computer.
That being said, this is one of the best PC maintenance programs I’ve ever used. You don’t have to know what you’re doing, just ask it to scan for errors, hit the button that tells it to fix them (or for you advanced users, select only the errors you’d like to fix). It will scan for all kinds of errors: disk errors, registry errors, missing software, shortcut problems. There is also a more detailed registry repair program on another tab of the software. It seems to catch more than the “general” fix-it component does. There is also another component that analyzes your internet connection and tweaks your connection settings to optimize your speed. The result of all this, for my PC, was a faster bootup time, faster internet access, and much faster browser page loading.
Like all new laptop owners, the first thing I did after buying it a couple of months ago was to get rid of alot of the “junky” software that I knew I would never need. Unfortunately, even using the add/remove programs application of Windows 7, small pieces of these programs get left behind. The AVG program was able to clean out all of these residual pieces and restore my computer to out-of-the-box functionality.
I have been using this program for about 6 weeks and have yet to experience any problems with software due to the cleanups I have run with AVG PC Tuneup. If you’re interested in trying this program out but don’t want to commit to the $$ just yet, the developer website has a fully-functional download that will clean up your computer one time, free of charge. After that they want $$. Fair warning, though, if you do this you will probably be chomping at the bit to pay for the software for unlimited use. It keeps your computer functioning like it was brand new. I’d recommend returning to Amazon get the paid version, however, I think it’s a better deal if you want to install this on more than one computer.
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|Aug 31, 2011 at 07:31:28
Seems great, BUT then,
I have an 8 month old windows 7 laptop. I run a multiple language program called Bibleworks 8.0 and google chrome to do most of my online activities. I ran this product on my system because I wanted to see how good it was. Now I’m having new problems. For example it modified about 2,000 files on my Bibleworks software. Now the software won’t run. Basically I’m having to reinstall my software because this ‘tune-up’ damaged the files. In addition my computer starts a lot slower now. So much for speeding up the system.
I cannot recommend this product for these reasons.
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|Aug 31, 2011 at 08:08:06
The Best and Easiest Tuneup program ever,
I have AVG Internet Security already, and love it. It beats Norton by miles for protection. Decided to get the AVG PC Tuneup here, and installed it. Overall, the whole tune up and optimization process took about an hour to complete for the first use. I was amazed at the errors it found, and even more amazed at the increased speed that I gained after using this program.
I switched to AVG about 4 years ago–because Norton was having alot of problems, and was not even updating itself like it should, so poor protection resulted from that. I have had no problems at all with AVG, and if your license is still good, they will allow you to update to the newest version for FREE–can’t get any better than that.
I would recommend AVG products to anyone. They are very user user friendly for someone just beginning to use a computer, as well as for those who have alot of experience with computers. Simple, easy to install and use, and keep updated, and very reasonably priced as well when compared to other Internet Security and Antivirus programs. Definitely give it a try, they offer a free version, that you can try to see if you like it. The free version gives pretty good protection, but the paid version offers more features that you really need. Great customer service as well.
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