To Shop or Not to Shop ONLINE That Is the Question

Convenience

Unless you have the full luxury of time, you're going to appreciate the convenience that shopping right on your personal computer offers. You don't have to leave the house or the office and you don't have to stand in long lines at the department store. You don't get sore feet when you think you need to more choices and, most of all, you can be sitting at your desk and sipping your mocchaccino while simply enjoying the wonders that this technology is giving you.

Smart Buys

If you shop online, you can take advantage of many online stores' discount packages or bundles which you just can't enjoy when you shop on foot at a brick-and-mortar store. Online, you're cool and relaxed and free to view the possible combinations of items or discounts that can truly make a difference in your shopping experience.

Affordability

Regular deal or special package, buying online will always mean great savings. That's because it takes relatively ittle to run an online store compared to operating a traditional shop where the business owner may have to settle whopping utility bills which are inevitably passed on to you, the consumer. When you shop online, everything's right under control.

Best Buys

When you shop, you would naturally want to see all your choices first before you settle on the best one. Traditionally, this is something quite hard to do. Aside form the fact that you can't possibly go to each store that sells the product you're looking to buy, you probably won't have the time, either. Online, you can view one store's choices and the next one's in a matter of minutes. Again, your feet will be happy. No need to feel as though you just had a tendon injury after a basketball game. You just click and click and click until you're ready to type in your credit card detaisl

Again, Convenience

When you shop traditionally, you have to literally carry those items home with you. You get them on your car after struggling to fit those bags into your trunk for 30 minutes and by the time you get home, you're probably too exhausted to be excited about what you just bought. Online, you sit there and move your mouse and type on your keyboard, wait 1-2 days or even hours if the store's within the area and you hear that knock on your door. Voila! Here comes your new designer handbag collection! Now, you can't spoil that excitement!

Out of Stock Issues

If, by any chance, the product you've come to like and consider buying is out of stock, you need not troop to another store that has it because online, you just move on to the next website and that's it! Of course, there's a greater chance you'll find an e-store that has that particular product and you won't have to strain those muscles.

FRAUD

If there's anything that vilifies online shopping so much you'd rather not do it, it's FRAUD. Fraud is when you buy something from a website using your credit card and somebody ends up using your account with you having to pay. It's bad enough that your identity has been stolen, but pay for other people's purchases out of defrauding you? That is quite too much and it's just something you can't allow. If you're wondering who does these things, HACKERS do. Yup, They'll find you through you IP address and they'll sneak in some tiny little code in your system without your knowing. This code is a keylogger that logs or records every letter, number or character you type on your keyboard, including your PASSWORDS and your USERNAMES. Of course, you can pretty much figure what happens after that.

Hidden Costs

When you shop online, there's a great possibility that the price you're seeing beside that item you're looking to buy is not everything you'll have to pay. Just when you've entered your credit card number and and made a go for the Purchase button, you learn that there's an additional charge for whatever. Not all websites or e-merchants do this, but a lot of them do.

Identity for Sale

The moment you enter your name and other personal information, your username, password, and credit card number, you're at risk for having your identity sold. Sound crazy? It does, but it happens like crazy, too. After hackers user your credit card account for their personal purchases, they may sell your information to marketing websites. Obviously, the reason is to give these site owners leads for marketing and advertising campaigns. While email bombardments by these companies are generally harmless, they can be a pain. Period. Besides, you deserve your privacy, don't you?

NO RETURN AND EXCHANGE POLICY

Most online stores don't implement a return/exchange policy which means if you get those items already damaged from shipment, you cant' get a new one. There's no particular reason for this except what the e-merchants know for themselves. It's just the way it goes with online purchases.

OFFSHORE DELIVERY

If you're shopping from an offshore location, obviously , you're going to receive your order after a seeming eternity. So if you value time, you'd definitely prefer to drive to that store downtown and get the product in minutes. .

1. Choose Your E-Commerce Sites (Check for reviews from independent sties and check with the Better Business Bureau.)

2. Protect your computer. Run your firewall and other security tools such as anti-virus software and anti-malware.

3. Check the site's URL. "Https" means safe. "Http" spells disaster.

4. Consider the site's design. Grammatical and spelling errors, typhos and poor content are signs of an untrustworthy site.

5. Keep your receipts.

6. Look for that padlock icon the lower right hand corner of your browser. No padlock means keep away.

7. UPDATE ALL PROTECTIVE SOFTWARE.

8. Don't easily fall for incredibly cheap items. If they're too cheap to be true, they probably are.

9. Never use a public computer when shopping online as the risks are greater.

10. CHECK YOUR STATEMENTS AS SOON AS YOU GET THEM. If you've indeed turned out to be a victim of fraud, authorities won't
believe you when you report too long after your last bill.

11. Use different usernames and passwords for logging in to different sites. If you don't, you're an easy target.

12. Use an IP hiding software.

Your IP address is a series of numbers that function to identify your computer each time you're online. When you communicate with another computer on the Internet, it's actually your IP communicating with that user's IP. When either IP is absent or untraceable, communication is impossible.

When you use an IP hiding software, you are hiding your real IP and using fake IP's supplied by the program.

Therefore, when you encounter a hacker wherever on the Internet, he's not going to land on your computer because he doesn't know where you are. Why? Because you've hidden your real IP address.