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Safety Tips for Online Shopping Judith Collins Judith Collins from MSU is an expert on identity theft.

More than 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the past five years, according a September 2003 Federal Trade Commission survey. Losses to businesses and financial institutions totaled nearly $48 billion in 2002. Michigan State University 's Judith Collins, an expert on identity theft, knows about this crime first hand. She was once a victim.

Identity theft, unfortunately, is a crime in its infancy – the outsourcing of identities to other countries, the many databases that contain personal information, the lack of proactive legislation, the problems with legal jurisdictions that impede prosecutions, the use of stolen identities by terrorists to conceal their activities – for these reasons and more, identity theft is expected to increase exponentially.

It is safe to shop online but consumer would do well to follow these tips to make their shopping experience safer:

1. Update anti-virus and anti-spyware software. These will help protect consumers from hackers who try to capture consumers’ personal information even as they type it into a Web site.
2. Place a password protection on credit card and bank accounts, including checking and savings accounts. This prevents unauthorized purchases from being sent to an address that is different from the credit card’s billing address, as well as unauthorized transfers of money and withdrawals. Using a password, consumers still can call the credit card company to approve that merchandise be sent to a different address, such as with a gift purchase.
3. Use a low-limit credit card for online shopping. Even if credit card information is stolen, this minimizes the amount of damage a thief can inflict.
4. Maintain checking accounts separately from savings accounts. Linking a checking account to a savings account to cover potential overdrafts risks the loss of money from both if one is accessed.
5. Cancel any automatic withdrawal payments and instead have them billed to a credit card. Automatic withdrawals, while convenient, allow for too much access to consumers’ money.
6. Shop with reputable businesses with secure sites. Look for a lock symbol in the lower, right-hand corner of a site as well as a letter “s” in the https part of a Web site address. This ensures that the site is encrypted and safe for business transactions.
7. If shopping through an unfamiliar site, research its origin through sites such as www.samspade.org, which give information about the site’s technical and administrative contacts. Also check for complaints with the Better Business Bureau where the company is located.
8. Read an online vendor’s privacy statement. Some companies automatically collect and use customers’ names, addresses and other personal information into its database. This information may be shared with other companies, and it is hard to ensure whether their database is secure.
9. Consider doing business with banks and credit card companies that provide customers with free services in the event they become victims of identity theft. Some companies capitalize on consumers’ fears of becoming victims of identity theft and sell them unnecessary services, such as credit reports, which consumers may access for free.
10. Check for and review a company’s return and shipping policies to avoid unnecessary or unauthorized fees.

Source: MIchigan State University

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