The holiday season is one of the busiest online shopping times of the year. It’s also
one of the most dangerous to your financial safety because online criminals are in full
force during the holidays. I have 8 tips to show you how to stay safe while shopping online this holiday season. Following these tips will help you keep your identity and financial accounts safe from scammers and prying eyes.

If you would like to listen instead of reading enjoy the How to Stay Safe While Shopping Online Facebook Live I did here:

How to Stay Safe While Shopping Online

1. Do you use your Smartphone to make purchases online? Watch your Smartphone carefully.  Before you let a friend, family member, or stranger borrow your phone,
ensure you’ve logged out of every program and website. It’s easy for someone to steal your identity online by using your logged-in credentials on a Smartphone. You may want to set up and download apps that lock your phone if it’s lost or stolen. These apps can prevent thieves from stealing your information. Search your app store for security
apps designed for your phone.

2. Watch out for fake shopping websites and emails. Fake websites and emails
can steal your personal information before you even realize that the website
isn’t real. Verify every website you use to do your online shopping. Be careful before you click on any links in your email. These may be scams created to harvest your personal data.
Ensure the websites you use are secure and have security certificates that are up to date. Secure sites encrypt your personal financial information to help you keep it safe. Paypal is another way you can shop while protecting your information. When that option is offered you have to login into your account and they pay the store. The store never actually sees your banking information.

3. Pay attention to your accounts. Identity thieves have learned that they can make smaller transactions online, and you may not notice them. These small transactions also verify active accounts. If these small transactions go unnoticed, they go on to steal even more.
Keep an eye on all of your online accounts. If you see any transactions you don’t recognize, call your bank or the merchant that holds the account immediately.

A few years ago my husband was hospitalized and while I was in the waiting room I was checking my email. I have a debit card with Paypal and they email me every time our cards are used. My husband’s card was authorized for a Walmart purchase in Indiana. We were in Arkansas so I immediately called Paypal and they shut down the card and credited me back the purchases. They were small, but since I knew I had not went to Walmart I knew they were not ours and caught it quickly. In the mean time they tried to hit our cards for plane tickets for thousands of dollars. There are people out there creating credit cards and testing them out at stores for small amounts.

4. Avoid public computers and networks. It’s safer to shop online during the
holidays at home on your personal devices. You may not be able to tell if a public computer or network has been hacked by identity thieves. They may have set up key logging software
that can capture every bit of information you type. They may have also infect the machines with malware or viruses to steal your data.

5. Avoid using your debit card. It’s safer to use a credit card for shopping online. Credit cards have stronger safety and consumer protection measures than
debit cards. If a thief gets hold of your debit card number, they can drain your bank
account in minutes, yet it can take days, weeks, or months for your bank to
replace your lost funds. On the other hand, with a credit card, they run up your balances, but the fraudulent charges are taken off again when you report them right away.

6. Pay attention to the privacy policies. Legitimate websites have privacy policies that state that they protect your financial information. If you’re using a website to shop during the holidays and don’t see any type of privacy policy, then it may be a sign of a scam. Just like credit cards people can try to duplicate websites to look just like the real ones.

7. Print your online receipts or save them. Saving all your receipts enables you to keep track of your purchases. You can compare these receipts to any charges you don’t recognize on your accounts.

8. Be careful on social media. Your social media friends may share amazing deals during the holiday shopping season. It’s smart to check these deals out ahead of time with your friends to ensure they are really deals that they recommended to you. Social media networks are also vulnerable to identity thieves. Luckily I have never been hacked, but I know so many friends that have.

By following these tips on how to stay safe while shopping online you will be able to protect your finances and identity at the same time so that you can enjoy the holiday season.

Stress Free Holidays: How to Survive Your Relatives this Holiday Season is a part of a blog series. In case you want to check out the other parts in the Stress Free Holidays series here are the links to each part.

Stress Free Holidays -Holiday Traditions and Memories

Stress Free Holidays- 8 Simple Holiday Time Savers

Stress Free Holidays: Gift Giving the Stress Free Way

Stress Free Holidays: Survive the Holidays Without Blowing Your Budget

Stress Free Holiday Traveling