It’s Cyber Monday today, and that means you can get some Black Friday deep discounts without leaving the comfort of your home or office.
But to get the best deals, online experts say be careful and watch your browser’s address bar closely to make sure you’re shopping safely.
Some additional tips are to shop only on well-known retail websites, and don’t buy unless the website uses Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, encryption.
You can tell a website is SSL-protected by looking for the following in the address bar:
- Web address begins with https:// instead of http://
- Address bar shows a padlock icon at the end.
Here are some other do’s and don’ts:
DON’T “like” Facebook contests. That gives the owner of a page access to your profile. Liking a contest doesn’t mean you’re automatically entered. Beware of other social media offers that don’t look legitimate.
DO use credit instead of debit. You can always dispute a credit card charge, but a debit card won’t always protect you against fraud.
DON’T click on sponsored ads in search engine results that start with the retailer’s name with a different Web address below it. Those are typically phone websites.
