Online Shopping a Common Scenario by Mark Comeau
Online Shopping I will never, ever buy anything over the Internet! Have you
ever said this? I have heard this statement from a number of people. The first
question I ask them is; Why? When I ask them this question I get a range of
answers but the most popular responses are: 'I don't know who I'm giving my
information to, how can I trust them', or 'The internet is not secure enough',
or 'There are thieves everywhere on the internet.'
Let go through a little scenario.
You take your family out for a nice supper at a local restaurant, and have an
enjoyable meal. The waiter/waitress brings the bill, you check to make sure it
right and then hand over your credit card, they walk away to process the
transaction. The server brings you the bill and the slip, you sign the slip and
hand it back, the server should check to make sure that your signature is
correct and hands back your credit card. This sounds like a normal transaction
that happens countless times everyday around the world.
Now let's look at what really happened here. When you handed over your credit
card to this individual you gave them a wealth of information whether you
realize it or not. The server has now walked away with your card and an
unscrupulous person might take advantage of this. The information available to
them to copy at their leisure is your credit card account number, the
expiration date, the security number on the back of the card and a copy of your
signature. This is more than enough information for a thief to use to purchase
goods on your card.
We don't normally think about this because using our credit cards at the local
restaurant or store is a normal part of life for most of us. We have a face and
usually a name to the person that we are dealing with and that gives us a
certain level of comfort, an perhaps instills a certain amount of trust in the
individual and the business we are dealing with, but do we really know the
person we are dealing with, in most cases probably not. So what we work on is
the perception of trust.
Now this is a pessimistic scenario, most people are honest, and law abiding and
the overall stats around credit theft in this manner is extremely low, so I
don't want to alarm anyone but instead wanted to use this example to make my
point. Doing business over the internet can be no more risky than handing your
credit card over to the complete stranger serving you in the restaurant.
So now let's look to see what happens when you purchase goods on the Internet.
You surf to a site where you find something that you either really want or
need. You go through the process to order the goods and come to the screen
where the company is now asking you to enter your credit card number, this
generally causes the customer to pause to contemplate whether or not taking the
next step is the right thing to do. This is the right reaction, you are about
to enter some sensitive information on a form where this information will be
sent electronically over the internet to the company that you want to deal
with. So to make you more comfortable in placing an order there are a few
things that you should look out for.
Making your Shopping Experience Comfortable.
When dealing with the store down the street you know how to find them if there
are any problems with the products you purchase. You have an address, a phone
number and most likely the name of the person that you are dealing with, so if
you have any problem you know where to go and who to talk to in order to get
any issues resolved.
Since the business you are dealing with is online finding them shouldn't be a
problem, but the company should also provide other means of contacting them in
case you have a problem with the product.
Check to see if they offer a phone number and hours of business. If you are at
all uncomfortable with dealing with a particular company, call them, you may
find that a simple phone call will set your mind at ease. Suddenly you have a
name and voice to go with the company.
Look for a physical address, a street address is always more viable than just a
PO box. Either way this gives you another method of communicating with the
company, and if your issue could lead to legal action sending a registered
letter to the offending party can be very useful.
If you have questions about how a company operates, call them or send and
e-mail. You'll be able get a sense about a company, in the way they respond and
how prompt they are at responding at customer requests. If they don't respond
in a professional manner then perhaps you shouldn't deal with them, or if it
takes them a long time to respond to your request then you would have to wonder
if this is the same service you would receive after the sale. Technical Queues
to Look for.
There are also other technical queues to look for as well. You are going to be
sending sensitive personal and financial information over the internet so you
have to make sure that the company that you're dealing with is looking after
your interests as well.
Encryption: The web page where you enter your personal and financial
information should be protected by encryption. The form of encryption is called
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) this is the industry standard for making secure
transactions over the internet.
To verify that your information will be encrypted you should look for a visual
clue that the web browser makers have built into the browser. For Internet
Explorer users a small pad lock will appear at lower right hand corner of the
browser window. If you see this you know that your information is being
protected. For Firefox users a key will appear at the bottom right hand side of
the screen to indicate that the information entered on the web page will be
encrypted.
Depending on where you are in the world there are two commonly used levels for
SSL encryption, 40-bit or 128-bit encryption, 128-bit being the stronger of the
two types of encryption. In North America the two browsers mentioned offer
128-bit encryption.
The latest versions of the most popular web browsers, Internet Explorer and
Firefox offer 128-bit encryption. You can download the latest versions of these
browsers from the following links.
Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com Microsoft
Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx
Most companies doing business online also present a logo for the company that
they use to provide the encryption, you might see logos like these. Insert
logos for thawte and verisign . To make you more comfortable investigate these
companies, the two mentioned here in this article are very well known and
reputable sources for SSL encryption.
The link tells a story too. When you surf to a web page that you believe to be
secure or feel that should be secure you can also look at the link a the top of
the page. The first charactersof the URL (Universal Resource Locator) determine
what kind of information will be displayed on the screen. For example a normal
web page will start with http://
, this tells the web browser to expect a web page.
When a web page is supposed to be encrypted the URL will start with
https://
, the additional 's' tells the browser that the information collected and sent
from the this web page will be encrypted.
So http: //www.mystore.com/buyhere.html is not an encrypted web page where
https: //www.mystore.com/buyhere.html is encrypted. Just because the URL starts
with https doesn't mean that you shouldn't look for the visual clue at the
bottom of your browser, look at them both. Making Payments over the Internet.
When most people think of shopping online they ssume that they will have to use
their credit card to make purchases. This, in my experience, can make people
very nervous, especially when dealing with a company that they are not familiar
with.
There are a number of things that you can do to limit the risk even further
when dealing with a company that you are not 100% familiar with.
So you don't want to use your platinum credit card with the huge limit on it,
because you don't want to risk that much credit on an unfamiliar company. Your
credit card vendor should be able to provide you with another card with a
smaller limit, somewhere around the $500 to $1000 mark, something that you feel
comfortable with. So even if by chance you run into someone who is out there to
be malicious your risk has been reduced by not offering them a card number that
will give them access to thousands of dollars.
Another increasingly popular way to make payments online is through a payment
processing company, here you place the amount of money you need to make the
purchase in an internet account with the payment company and then the payment
company will in turn pay the vendor you are purchasing from. This form of
payment is secure for both the purchaser and the online business. The company
you are purchasing from never sees your personal financial information and your
financial information is only available to the payment company. This way you
are not sharing your credit card information with a bunch of businesses you
only have to deal with one. In addition you are reducing your risk not only
because you are only sharing your financial information with one company, this
companies main purpose is to provide these services, it is their livelihood
they are in that business to make it work not only for themselves but also for
their customers, which include both the businesses that sign up to use their
services but also for the consumer. Additionally youdecide how much money to
place in this account, so instead of potentially risking more than the purchase
price you can simply put in exactly the amount required to make the purchase,
you control it, it's your account.
The downside to payment processing company is that not all online businesses
are subscribers to their services. If you feel more comfortable making
purchases over the internet in this manner call or write to the company that
you want to deal with to see if perhaps this is an option. If enough people do
it the company may decide to make it a payment option for their customers.
If you're not comfortable with providing any financial information over the
internet contact the company they might be able to provide you with COD
service, or take your order over the phone. Call the company most will be more
than happy to accommodate your needs. I hope that this has helped you to
understand some of the issues and clear up some of the misconceptions about
making purchases over the internet. In review here are the few things that you
should look for.
1. Does the company provide multiple ways to contact them if there is an issue?
2. Is your personal information going to be encrypted when it is sent to the
company? 3. Does the business offer different payment options? 4. Are you
comfortable with the company you are dealing with? 5. How quickly do they
respond to customer requests? Here are a few things to look for once you have
purchased from the company. 1. A confirmation that the transaction has been
processed should appear on the screen as well it should be delivered in the
form of an e-mail. This information should be the same as a receipt and contain
information indicating when the order was received, an invoice number, an
indication of when the order will be shipped and contact information incase
there is a problem with the order. I would suggesting printing the web page
containing the transaction information and when the e-mail arrives print it as
well, for your records of the purchase. This is just incase the e-mail gets
delete by accident.
2. Once the order has been shipped, you should receive another e-mail
indicating the tracking number and the web link you can use to track your
package. If there are any issues with shipping your order the company should be
prompt in sending a message to let you know what the issues are and when you
can expect to seeyour delivery arrive. The company should also give you the
option to cancel the order and get a full refund. Shopping online is not to be
feared, it is the next step in commerce. Much like the advent of the catalogue
and making purchases over the phone, shopping over the internet is simply the
next logical step. The catalogue is now electronic and has the capability to
reach millions of potential buyers, and instead of calling in your order the
consumer simply enters some information and presses a few buttons on the
screen. The advent of SSL and other technologies to make commerce online safe
and secure has pushed this new avenue for businesses further than ever expected
and there is no end to the growth in site. Every day there are more and more
vendors embracing the internet as a source to reach new markets and open the
world to new products. Just as the internet has made the world a smaller place
to live electronic commerce is bringing people closer to the products that
otherwise would never have been available to them.
If you have any additional questions that this article has not addressed or
would like some clarification on any of the points made here, please feel free
to send an e-mail to questions@new2technology.com, or visit
www.new2technology.com we are here to help.
The contents of this article may not be reproduced, copied, published or
modified in whole or part without the written consent of the author Copyright
2004 new2technology Inc.
About the Author
Mark Comeau has been working in the technology field for the past 25 years.
Started writing programs for the local high school and his town council. He
currently hold a management position with the regional telephone company as a
technical implementation person, responsible for ensuring that systems are
deployed on the telco network properly.
|
