In its commitment to enabling an environment that facilitates and promotes e-commerce and foster consumer confidence in the digital marketplace, the CAD, urges consumers to protect themselves when shopping online.
- Do your background research. When shopping online, always do your research. Check online reviews, news articles, social media posts and background information regarding merchants and good prior to purchase.
- Ensure that the online business is legitimate. For smaller unknown merchants ensure that the business is legitimate. Any legitimate online retailer should list where their business is located, as well as a phone number an email to reach them. Before entering any payment details, visit the Contact Us page. If there is no contact page or no visible contact information or address, refrain from purchase. To be extremely thorough, test to ensure that someone is on the other end checking customer requests. Fill out the contact form using only your email as a contact and delay your purchase until you hear back from customer service.
- Check Warranties and Policies. Legitimate online businesses should display a link to their return policies, shipping policies and product warranties. Ensure that you take a look at all policies and warranties to make certain that there are no hidden fees or charges that may show up on your bill and that in the unfortunate event that the item is defective, that you can obtain redress.
- Avoid offers that seem “too good to be true”. Beware of any e-store that promises way too much at way too low a price. Before you purchase, consider whether or not you will ever receive the items you paid for, whether the items are actually the brand shown or a cheap substitute, if the item will work, if you will be able to return damaged goods – or if the merchant is earning extra income by selling your financial information. Disreputable online stores may run an absurdly low price offer and then claim the item is out of stock, to try to sell you something else in a classic “bait and switch” scam.
- Avoid stores that request more information than necessary. Expect to provide some method of payment (inclusive of credit card information), shipping address, telephone number, and email address when purchasing something online. However, beware of stores that request bank account information, identification card or driver’s license number and other unnecessary private information. Some companies ask questions about your interests, but these should always be optional and you should be cautious about providing the information. Check the site’s privacy policy to understand how exposed your information may become. Many stores clearly state that they do not share, sell or rent consumer’s information – others say they own your information and can use it however they choose. Stick to the companies that respect your privacy.
- Use unique passwords. You will often be asked to create an account with a password when you make a purchase. Usually, you can choose not to do this. Only create an account if you intend to use the site frequently. If you do want an account, make sure to use a unique and strong password. Strong passwords may include a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Refrain from using generic passwords for all your online accounts and profiles.
- Ensure a secure connection. When doing your online shopping, before entering purchase information, ensure that you are on an encrypted connection. This can be identified by a lock icon anywhere on the browser and the URL begins with https instead of just http.
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