IT Support

Tips for Paying Safely Online

Retailers are constantly looking for new convenient ways to relieve you of your hard earn cash over the internet. You can now shop remotely on websites, on your mobile, and even on social media networks like Facebook.

Such is the growth of this type of purchasing that while Britain was still fighting itself out of a recession in 2010 the global e-commerce market grew 12.6 per cent. Business analyst Forrester predicts this ascendency will also continue with more than £170 billion worth of transactions expected to take place globally in 2015. Despite this rapid growth, fears over internet security consistently rear their head and the battle to stop scammers never stops.

Strict regulations are laid out by the payment card industry, to prevent fraud, which have to be adhered to by any company taking payments over the internet. This doesn’t necessarily guarantee that all companies operating online are reputable though IT experts have shown.

These days people can however get a good feel for a company’s reputation by visiting review sites. They can even go a step further and look up details on the Companies House website, where all registered UK businesses can be found.

Legislation recently agreed to by Euro MPs should also give online shoppers extra comfort in the future as websites will need to clearly state the identity and address of the seller. The changes are also designed to stop hidden charges, which can be added by pre-ticked boxes, sometimes used in internet sales. In addition to this it is important to remember when paying by credit card, for items over £100, it is the credit card company and the supplier who are responsible for the purchase. Therefore, if the goods are not delivered or are faulty, buyers can claim the money back from either the credit card company or the seller.

Protection over unauthorised transactions on credit cards also exists and if any erroneous payments are extracted then the credit card owner has up to 13 months after the transaction to demand repayment. The onus is then on the bank, building society or credit card company to prove the transaction was made by the purchaser.

Consumers can also add a further layer of protection by employing a payment service such as PayPal to distant themselves further from any financial risk. People do, however, need to be wary of fake websites and so called phishing scams, where con artists attempt to extract payment details over the internet by pretending to be organisations such as banks. Internet browsers such as Mozilla and Internet Explorer do have screen filters to prevent phishing but some scammers also use emails. It is important to remember to never send your payment details over emails, text messages or any chat rooms.

Payment details should only be sent on internet pages where the start of the web address, or URL, has an “s” after http. This indicates that the page is secure and any information sent from it will be encrypted. A padlock icon will also be visible on the address bar to confirm.

These simple tips for paying safely online will do the best part of protecting you online, spread the news!

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