Watching out for fraudulent sites isn’t hard, and is the crucial first step in a secure online shopping experience. The key in most cases is to type in the Web site’s address, and not to follow links sent in e-mails.
Most Web browsers will alert you when you’re navigating to known phishing sites or those serving up viruses. A lot of harmful sites are set up and dismantled within 24 hours, so it’s often very hard to identify and block them before the criminals have a chance to cause too much damage.
Also look for your browser’s address bar to turn green; that’s a sign the site you’re visiting has paid for, and passed, an extra layer of background checks to verify that it’s a legitimate business. This is a new feature that also indicates the site is using proper encryption methods. A lot of merchants are now using authorize.net to help them process payments.
If a site doesn’t have that feature, look for the traditional SSL padlock when you get to a site’s order page, and click on that if you have doubts about the site’s authenticity. It will identify the site’s owner and the agency that issued the SSL certificate. The padlocks are not always foolproof, however, because scammers can spoof them.
