Shopping online is great you need not travel to places to buy things. There are lots of online stores offering great deal of offers to make you happy with your purchase. Shopping online do have its own version of risk involved, you can reduce these risks by following some important and safe guidelines.

By following these instructions you can make your online shopping experience happy always. Beware of spammers, scammers and fraud online stores out there, the number one rule for safe shopping is never trust a site blindly hopping for a better deal. Here are the five basic and useful tips all online consumers should be aware of.

1) Always use a secure PC to shop online

If you are using a Windows Computer, make sure that it has latest version of anti-virus and firewall software installed on it. Avoid using public computers in cafes, libraries and other public places. If your children are playing online games on the computer there is a great chance that your computer is already infected with spyware ready to steal your personal information as you enter.

• Never use public computers for online shopping.
• Make sure that the computer you use has latest anti-virus, firewall and security updates installed.

Make sure that the computer you are using has got all the latest security updates from Microsoft. If you are using a Mac to shop online then make sure that it to have all the latest security updates installed. Operating system manufactures like Microsoft and Apple releases security updates as they are available.

2) Never trust any new sites, shop at sites you know and trust

Many people like to use search engines to find better deals online. The results you get are mostly random; you may also see sites which are never heard before. It is always suggested that you shop items at a site that you know well and trust.

• Do some research about the site your do not know or trust

There are well a lot of sites online which are fraud or involve in some kind of scam. To avoid getting into their trap, do some research about the sites you may take help of sites like Better Business Bureau and RipoffReport.

Do not trust any advertisement emails in your inbox, there are almost all fraud or scam.

3) Use your Credit Card for shopping.

With the introduction of Credit Card, you can use this virtual money to shop at regular stores and online stores. Credit Card company are improving security measures to make using Credit cards online safer. Federal law, limits consumers liability for misuse of credit card to $50, some credit card issuers even wave this amount.

• Credit Card offers you extra level of security for doing online shopping

You can even ‘charge back’ bank if you can prove that your credit card is been misused. It is also a good habit to check your credit card statement online at regular intervals. Now a day’s even most of the sites are even accepting debit card for online shopping, check with the site and the level of security they provide.

4) Know the real price of the item you want to buy online

Online stores feature many new and flashy items, you never heard about a brand or item that you see on the store. In this kind of situations it is better to have good idea about the brand and item listed in the store.

• Price of a same item varies from one site to other, do some research to find the real price of the item before you place an order.

There are many situations where online stores have changed more than double the amount of actual item price to their consumers. Calculate taxes and other charges like shipping, etc., before you finalize any order and make payment. Local taxes changes from one state to other and also depend up on the nature of the item you are going to purchase.

Most of the sites offer you to provide free shipping during holidays to promote their sales. This might also be a trick to trap consumers in the scam, if there is a physical store of the online store is present near to you. It is better to take your delivery from the physical store itself, this way you can have a good idea about the item and its nature of presence, taxes and price information.

5) Read and understand the privacy policy

It is been a common practice for most of the consumers to check or accept terms and conditions or privacy policy without even having a look at the document. Even if you are been scammed by a site and can provide all the proof’s like your credit card statement, shipping details, bills, etc.

• Never accept terms and conditions or privacy policy without reading the documents.

Your petition can be rejected saying that the shop has already mentioned about the consequences in the terms and conditions or privacy policy on their site.