Credit Card

5 Tips for Shopping Safely Online

The US Postal Service expects to deliver 800 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. With so much money changing hands over the holidays, credit card fraud can run rampant.

Levo Credit Union has put together five tips for shopping safely online.

	Business Information:	Get to know the merchant from whom you’re considering buying. Does it have a listed physical address? How about a phone number listed on the site for customer service queries? The more upfront an online seller is, the more legitimate they likely are.
	Official Policies:	Does the website feature a privacy policy clearly linked? And does it outline a clear return policy somewhere in its FAQs or help section? These are items typically in place for secure, non-fraudulent online retailers.
	Trust Marks:	47% of shoppers look for trust marks when shopping on lesser-known websites, according to McAfee. Many e-commerce websites make use of trust marks to signal to their customers that they’ve been independently verified as a trusted seller. Look for marks such as Better Business Bureau, Symantec or TRUSTe in the site’s footer.
	Good Grammar and Spelling:	Check the site you’re planning to buy from for spelling errors and obvious typos. Suspicious websites are more prone to these.
	Credible Reviews:	One good way to cross-check an online retailer for legitimacy is checking its customer satisfaction. Look at popular retail review sites—check for reviews that aren’t almost or completely identical or very recent or in a similar time period. This may signify fake reviews.