To Shop Online Or Not

[LadyCash]

An Article On the Hard Facts of Shopping Online


You hear the stories of the great deals online. You have a friend that does all their shopping online. You think you might want to give it a try. Then you see news stories of identity theft, fraudulent online retailers and sub-standard products. The fear factor (and not the show) has you paralyzed from trying a comfortable time and money saving shopping experience.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Septemer 2004 "Entering the Broadband Age", "Two of the activities with the greatest growth between 2001 and 2003 were online purchases of goods and services (e-commerce) and online banking. Americans engaging in e-commerce has grown substantially—8.0 percentage points—over the 2001-2003 period. Online banking grew by 10.4 percentage points, more than any other activity considered."

In another article by James Macguire written in 2005, each year 2002 through 2005 has shown a 25% or more rise in online shopping. Mr. Macguire states that more experienced internet users are willing to shop at unfamiliar online shops.

You say that is all fine and dandy but what are the stats for the risks? I thought you would never ask. After much sifting through unsupported data ranging from hype to get one to buy online shopping protection to all forms of identity theft lumped together, I was able to get down to brass tacks. National Consumers League's Fraud Center reports for 2007 sales of general merchandise not through auctions at 23% for the number two (2) spot. In case you did not check out the number one (1) spot, it is phony checks issued by consumer!

With the facts in hand, you are ready to take the plunge. Before your mice runs wild through online retailers be sure to read my article, "Wise Online Shopping Practices".

[siliconjon]

Wow, that's a lot of people falling for the bank account money transfer schemes.

My quick analysis on avoiding many of these issues without reading the linked tips page:

• 1) Fake Check Scams - don't use your personal checks for personal purchases, save them for your trusted pre-established billing purposes. Money orders, PayPal, credit (not debit) cards, and Google CheckOut are some better options for shopping purposes. Debit cards tend to not have the same extent of safeguards as credit cards, and it's truly money lost until recovered, so use a credit card but pay it quickly to avoid interest accumulation. I also won't order my checks online. My bank is more expensive, but they're much more secure.
  
• 2) General Merchandise, 3) Auctions, 6) Advance Fees 9) Conmen/women - Buy only from reputable sources! Use sites like ResellerRatings.com & GoogleShopping for business reputation lookups, and sites like heatware.com and ebay.com for personal trader reputations. Know who you're dealing with, and know wether our not fees and prices are normal by shopping around. Don't trust people you don't know anything about with anything you can't afford to lose.
  
• 4) Money Offers - DON'T! Never give account information to people or alleged businesses contacting you. If it seems such information is required be sure to initiate the contact yourself to an established contact method with the company you are attempting to communicate with.
  
• 5) Foreigh Lottery - DON'T! I haven't seen a legit reason for this type of transaction, either. If you need to play there should be plenty available locally.
  
• 7) Prizes/Sweepstakes - Keep it local or reputable, and remember that just because you didn't win doesn't mean it was fixed!
  
• 8) Phishing - don't click on email links asking you to log in or otherwise provide account information - know where the site is and go there manually. There are also tools to help prevent this, but that's an answer all its own.
  
• 10) Internet providers - Finding reputation prior to making such a commitment is best for any purchasing decision. Options can be scare for some geographical areas, though - discuss reputation locally to find out how a business performs for its customers in that area. Size doesn't necessarily mean anything - look up AOL problems for proof.

[SavvySaver]

I agree. I love shopping online, but you need to know where you're ordering from.

[jerzon]

Informative post...I usually do my shopping on ebay and so far so good.