A word about shopping online

Just mentioning shopping online raises fears and concerns about stolen credit card numbers and lost merchandise. The sad fact of online shopping is, yes, theses things do happen, but the odds of getting mugged on the way to the store to buy something is greater than having your credit card number stolen by a "hacker". What is more probable is running into a business that might be a shaddy overnight venture or even a scam. The internet, sadly, is full of places like that. Why? because it's so darn easy to do and virtually risk free! Webspace is given out in some places for free and virtually no identification verification is done on the person posting the information. So, how do you keep from becoming a victim of internet crime, while still enjoying the fruits of online shopping? Try following these tips:

1) What does the site look like? Has the Website been thrown together overnight, or is it obvious that someone has a lot of time invested? Very few scam artists want to spend a lot of time making their money. Sort of defeats the purpose. This doesn't mean that they aren't legit, but a larger company, by nature, will have more invested into site development. Good site development isn't easy and it doesn't come cheap.

2) Where did you find the site you are shopping at? Most of the reputable online shopping sites have made a name for themselves already. This means they will have reciprical links from other reputable pages, probably customers and hopefully pleased customers. Did you follow a advertisement banner from another page? Most of these, unlike internet space, are not free. Odds are if they had to pay for advertisements they are a legitimate company.

3) What do other people say about them? Do searches on the site in question. If they are dirty dealers, odds are you won't be the first person to fall prey to them. And odds are if those people are shooters, they will be mad and hopefully vocal. The ease of using the internet that makes it desirable for scam artists also makes it easier for the average online consumer to cry fraud! The pen is mightier than the sword, so that makes the keyboard something like an assault pen, right? Do internet searches on the site (try a program called Copernic© - makes this a lot easier!), post questions about the site on message boards, discussion lists and forums. Somewhere, there is someone that has shopped at the site in question, and they will have some kind of opinion, good or bad.

4) Lastly, the golden rule, if it's too good to be true, it probably is! When you see 1000 rnds. of .45 ACP for $50, odds are that isn't a real deal at all!

More about online shopping can be found at http://www.e-vision2000.com/is_online_shopping_safe_.html

-RS