Six Gift Shopping Tips to Keep Your Personal Information Safe

Tips for Gift Shopping Online

1. It's always safer to use your home computer. Just be a little wary of computers in public areas. There could be spyware on them that gives other users access to your financial information.

2. Type in the retailer's online web address rather than clicking through a link in an e-mail from the retailer. This will prevent you from being reeled in by a "phisher". A "phisher" uses a fake Web address and e-mail that pretends to be a real site. What may happen is, if you click "reply" on one of these phony e-mail messages, you are sent to the phony site where crooks can steal your passwords and financial information.

3. Always look for the padlock or a color bar at the bottom of an online retailer's Web site. This way you know that the information you enter is encrypted so no one can copy it.

4. Use more complex passwords and save them in a password manager. Using this software makes it easy to store multiple passwords. With it you only have to remember only one master password. How does a password manager work? You download it and it sits safe and secure on your browser along with the web address of your login pages. The first time you sign into an account of any kind the password manager asks if you want to save your username and password. You then give the username/password combination a name so you can locate it in the password manager.

5. You can use a single use credit card number. This is an excellent idea. Citibank, Bank of America, and Discover offer these numbers to cardholders. It's called the ShopSafe program. How it works is that you receive a number that is linked to your account but is not your actual credit card number. It keeps your true account number off the Web and out of merchant databases by generating a random, substitute number in its place.

6. Top search engine results are much more secure sites than those further down the list. If you're doing searches on the internet it's better to select sites higher up the list as possible on the first page of results.

Gift shopping is definitely a pleasure and convenience. If you follow these few tips, you'll have extra peace of mind knowing that your personal information is safe and secure.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theresa_Kruger

Last Minute Christmas Help - Gift Ideas For Last Minute Shoppers

Shopping for gifts at the last minute can cause you to panic. A lot of stores sell out of the popular Christmas presents fast. And you may not know what to do. So, what I'm going to do is share with you some ideas and tips for last minute Christmas help.
That way, you will be able to get everyone a gift who's on your list.
The last minute Christmas help is:
1. Prepare a Homemade Stocking or Basket. This is a great last minute present. You could fill the basket and stocking with a lot of little goodies. You can also personalize it. This will make this gift a special one for the person who are making it for.
2. Amazon Gift Cards. This is probably the best last minute gift to get someone on Christmas. You can have Amazon email the gift card to the person you are getting it for. It takes them about 4 minutes to email it, which makes this the perfect gift to get someone, even if it's on Christmas day.
3. DVDs/Movies. Getting someone DVDs and movies is another great gift at the last minute. There are a ton of new movies that are being released during the holidays. Some of the video stores are having Christmas sales on movies, too.
These are some ideas and gifts for last minute Christmas help. If you are wanting to get some gifts for someone on your list, you should get the ones mentioned above. They will make great presents for anyone who's on your list.

Top Mistakes Made When Shopping Online

Shopping online is something that has grown in popularity throughout the years, especially since websites have become more secure and the shopping as a whole has become a much easier experience. As a matter of fact, many people are finding that it is simply easier to just sit at their computer and plug in a credit card for the items they want. This is opposed to hopping in their car, driving to the shopping mall, and standing in lines all evening long. In other words, the online method of checking out is much more efficient than standing in a cashier's line.

However, there are mistakes that people make when shopping online. It is very important to know what these mistakes are so that you don't make them the next time you buy something online.

The mistakes

Now, you might be wondering what these mistakes could possibly be because the Internet is safe, right? Well, it is true that there has been technology put in place that allows the Internet to be safer when carrying out transactions. People have worried about identity theft and stolen credit card numbers for years when it comes to the Internet. But these new and improved ways of shopping online have changed.

But some things have not changed, which is what contributes to these mistakes:

• Shopping from a site that doesn't have https:// in the address bar. You are used to seeing http://, but the https:// means that the connection is secure. This is very important when entering personal information such as a credit card number.

• Shopping from an unfamiliar site. Although someone may have said, "You have to shop from this site." You need to ask them if they have actually received the item. You also need to ask them if the charge was carried out correctly on their credit card. Again, make sure that the site is secure.

• Entering too much personal information is another issue. If you have a merchant asking you for your social security number, you need to hit your browser's back button because there is no need for that. If they say it is for "verification" purposes, that is not so. They shouldn't be able to compare your social security number in the first place because they don't really have access to any part of it.

• Make sure you keep an eye on the shopping cart. There are some instances in which it does not distinguish between adding something to the cart and checking out. You need to be careful because you might find yourself checking out instead of adding more items to your cart. This could result in you having to go back and do another transaction, which means additional shipping charges if you choose to use the same merchant.

These are some of the basic mistakes that can be made. In a nutshell, always be mindful of what it is you're doing on the Internet.

Consequences

If you are wondering about the consequences that could be suffered from these mistakes, you're looking at possible identity theft, theft of credit card numbers, money taken for an item that you never receive, and the possibility of having to pay more than what you really have to pay.

Fortunately, these consequences can be avoided by ensuring that you're doing business with a reputable site and one that is secure. This means that you can have confidence in the company that you are doing business with. You shouldn't have to be afraid to carry out a transaction on the Internet. By taking the right precautions you can do just that. You can have the confidence that you are going to get exactly what it is you ask for.

Why Shop Online?

You must be wondering what people are always talking about if you have never shopped online before. You guess that except for those people who live hundreds of kilometers from the nearest store that shopping online is a convenience, not a necessity. So how convenient could it be? What could be easier than hopping into your car and driving to the nearest mall ... and fighting for a parking space, then walking from store to store and aisle to aisle looking for the items that you want, and waiting in the check-out line, and lugging those bags out to the car through a heavy rain storm, and driving home through the traffic as the rain keeps pouring?

You have choices and will continue to have them. At least in your lifetime, Senate is not likely to outlaw physical stores.

In many instances, shopping online through the internet is a quick and easy alternative to the horrible experience listed above. Sometimes it allows you to do things that otherwise would be impossible for you, or can save you trouble and money -- lots of it. When that isn't the case, just shop the way you always have.

You should shop online through the Internet when:

• You know exactly what you want, and with a minimum of hassle and time. You don't want to spend too much time driving to a physical store and going through the usual routine there; and, if the item is out of stock and unavailable at the first store, you don't want to have to tramp to another and another, or wait week after week for delivery.

• You know what kind of thing you want to buy, but not particularly which one -- which book or CD or video. Also, you don't want to waste your money buying something you won't like and waste your time figuring out that you made a mistake.

• You know what you want to buy, but it's unusual that very few stores would ever carry such a thing..

• You're curious but you don't have the luxury of time to indulge your curiosity in the physical world where it takes so long and costs so much to go from one place to another. On the Internet, you can go from one side of the world to another with just a click of your mouse at the comfort of your home.

• You want to buy something, but don't want to be seen or caught buying it. Maybe it's a gift that you want to keep secret before you give it, and being seen going into the store by family or friends would blow the surprise. Or perhaps it's something you'd be embarrassed to buy in person. May be it’s a sex-related product that you don’t want people to know.

• You are a bargain hunter by nature. You get a charge out of buying things at lower prices than your friends and neighbors. Saving money is nice, but not nearly as good as flexing your smart-buyer muscles.

• You can't get to the store because ofan illness or taking care of a sick kid or age or bad weather or lack of transportation or lack of time.

We know that we have always been doing things the way we always have been. This article is to make you realize the ease of doing shopping the “new and lazy” way.

There aren’t any tech-ie stuff about doing everything online. You need to know what you want and buy it with the greatest ease. You are learning the true way of living my friend. With just a click, you could have the items that you want right at your door step!

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Can Internet Coupons Replace The Conventional Ones??

Internet coupons or online coupons are becoming very popular especially in the last few years. A coupon is a document or a ticket which can be exchanged for a rebate or even a financial discount while buying a product or some other piece. The internet marketers are looking at online coupons as one of the best ways to attract customers to their businesses.

Conventionally any type of coupons is given by the retailers or the manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, which can be used in the retail stores. They see these coupons as a means of sales promotion. They are normally issued through magazines, mails, news papers and of late through the internet. When the coupons are distributed through the internet/ World Wide Web they are called online coupons or internet coupons.

Internet coupons are very cheap and at times there is no cost that has to be taken care of by the business man. As the user has to take care of the printing cost also, the businessman can easily distribute these coupons for a negligible cost. As the number of people using the internet is increasing exponentially in the recent times, it is very easy to reach a huge number of interested customers through the internet for almost all kinds of businesses. In addition to this, as so many valid mailing lists are available at a very reasonable cost, businesses are getting attracted towards the usage of internet coupons rather than going for the conventional ones.

The trend of internet coupons is not only on a raise in the United States market but it is also on the raise in the Asian and European markets. The main reasons behind this are the increased usage of the internet and low cost involved in the distribution of the coupons over the internet.

The online marketers call these internet coupons with a wide variety of names. Some of them include “promotional codes, coupon codes, shopping codes, promo codes” and so on. What ever the name given to these internet coupons may be; but the main intention behind their distribution is the sales promotion. How ever, internet coupons can not be a supplementary thing to the conventional coupons in many businesses like retail and manufacturing and so on. Hence these online coupons should be treated only as the complementary coupons to the conventional ones at least until the internet penetration goes up to 90%.

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