Happy Cyber Monday! The day many of us celebrate finding phenomenal deals on holiday gifts for loved ones, and then wallowing in mild discontent knowing that even though we saved some dough, we’re still out a good chunk of change.
Like it or not, Cyber Monday has morphed into the biggest online shopping day of the year. This is great news for tech-savvy individuals, but if you are a parent or grandparent, who hasn’t embraced the convenience of online shopping, today can be bittersweet. While you’d love to take advantage of the amazing online sales, there’s a bit of hesitation because you fear putting your personal information in cyberspace.
Fortunately, there’s a way you can shop online without trepidation. PayPal is a highly reputable third-party payment system, which doesn’t force you to give out your credit card number when ordering merchandise online. The popular e-commerce business files your credit card and other personal information in a secured file. When you shop online, those retailers use PayPal as an intermediary so you don’t have to disclose financial information with random Internet retailers.
If you don’t want to deal with PayPal, there are other ways you can protect yourself while you shop online during the holiday season and beyond. According to the National Cyber Security Task Force there are some dos and don’ts you should follow:
- Don’t connect to free Wi-Fi spots when shopping online. Cyber thieves troll free Wi-Fi spots and look for opportunities to attack.
- Don’t store data online such as credit card information and home addresses.
- Do select one (and only one) credit card for online shopping, so if a breach occurs, you only have one card to cancel.
- Do use name-brand websites only. Even if deals are better on unknown retailer websites, stick with reputable sites so you don’t get scammed.
- Do be concerned when you see emails or text messages asking for financial information. Even if they appear to be from a trusted source, any message asking for your personal information is likely a phishing or smishing scam.