The Safest Way To Shop For Mother’s Day Online

Are you planning to buy gifts for the special women in your life for Mother's Day? Shopping online is convenient, but it's essential to do it safely. During holidays, cybercriminals ramp up various scams targeting those looking for gifts online. These scams can range from fake offers to sham giveaways, all aiming to steal your money and information. With rapidly changing technology, what kept you safe before might not be sufficient now. In this guide, we'll share the best ways to pay for your online purchases, identify common scams, and outline top online shopping best practices to keep you safe.

How to Make Online Purchases Safely

Should you use your debit card to buy online? No! Debit cards are linked directly to your bank account. If you make a bad purchase online, it can be challenging to get your money back once you've alerted your bank. To avoid headaches, hours on the phone with customer support, losing money, and potential legal fees, use your credit card or a third-party payment system instead.

Credit cards have extensive fraud monitoring systems that can catch discrepancies as they occur. These companies use statistical analysis and machine learning to track and analyze your transactions, quickly identifying suspicious activity and allowing you to dispute the purchases to avoid being charged.

Some credit card companies, like Capital One, go further by offering virtual credit cards. These provide a random 16-digit number, a three-digit CVV, and an expiration date for online or even in-store purchases. While these connect to your real accounts, retailers can't see your actual card details, keeping your information secure. These virtual cards can be turned off at any time, eliminating the hassle of canceling unneeded subscriptions through the merchant.

Third-party tools like PayPal are also excellent options because no personal information is exchanged with the seller. The company you're purchasing from does not receive your financial or banking information, keeping your data secure.

Online Shopping Best Practices

Using a credit card, virtual card, or third-party payment tool is a great start, but it isn't the only proactive step to stay safe online. When making purchases online, ensure you:

Why Proactive Cybersecurity is Crucial

Cybercriminals will use any method to steal your information and money. Staying safe requires a proactive approach to protecting your financial information. This is equally important for businesses. If hackers are willing to put significant effort into stealing money from low-dollar purchases, imagine what they would do to access your company accounts. Your customer data, employee information, and trade secrets can be worth millions to them.

If you're unsure if your company's security is up to par or want a second opinion on your system, we offer a FREE Consult. Our team will go through a multi-step security checklist to identify any vulnerabilities in your network.

Stay safe and protect your financial information this Mother's Day and beyond. Secure your online shopping and business transactions with these best practices.

Click here to book your FREE Consult now or call our office at 954-327-1001.

1. Shop from real websites: Cybercriminals often set up fake websites that look like big-name retailers. Go to the genuine website and search for the item you're looking for.
2. Avoid too-good-to-be-true offers: If it sounds like a scam, it probably is. If you're interested in a deal, go to the website directly to verify its legitimacy.
3. Do NOT click on promo links in emails: Cybercriminals send spoof emails mirroring your favorite brands. Clicking on these links can infect your network.
4. Use a VPN: This hides your location and web browsing information from potential snoopers.
5. Don't save your information: While password tools aim to make your life easier by saving your payment information, they can make you more vulnerable to theft.
6. Use unique logins for loyalty accounts: Using the same email and password combination for all your accounts means if one is compromised, a hacker could access all of them, including those with your payment information.
7. Set up alerts: Enable notifications in your banking system to alert you of any purchases or purchases over a certain amount, allowing you to quickly report any suspicious activity.