How To Shop Safely Online & Detect Secured Websites

There are thousands of shopping websites on the internet, many with thousands more independent sellers. The majority of these are perfectly legitimate, but spotting the fraudulent ones takes a bit of research.

If you’re using a website you haven’t used before, search for them online to see if they have any negative feedback. For independent sellers on a website, you can check out their online reviews on a site such as TrustPilot

There’s also some information you should find out before buying online:

• How long will delivery take and where is the item being sent from? A Nigerian or Europe-based seller should be able to deliver within a week, if the item is in stock.
• What is the returns policy? If they don’t seem to have one, be suspicious. Knowing what the policy is will help you if something isn’t delivered or arrives broken, even if the seller wasn’t trying to scam you.

How you can tell if a website is secure

Only ever put your card details into secure websites. Look for the following signs to know you’re shopping safely.

Be aware that this only means the site is secure, not that the seller is honest.

Padlock symbol

There should be a padlock in the address bar next to the website address.

Website address

This should start with https://. The ‘s’ stands for secure.

Green address bar

On certain browsers and websites, the address bar will turn green.

Valid certificate

If you click the padlock symbol or just to the left of the address bar, you should see information on the site certificate.

This should tell you who has registered the site. If you get a warning about a certificate, avoid the website.