Shopping Online? 6 Things to Keep in Mind to Safeguard your Financial Data

The pandemic has given a big boost to online shopping in India. The convenience and ease attached to it have made it an integral part of our lives. According to payments data on the Razorpay platform, e-commerce transactions have grown by 210% just during the course of the pandemic. This growing preference has also given rise to many new businesses that are offering their products online or direct-to-home. However, most small businesses don’t allow for Cash-on-Delivery payments and this makes it more critical for shoppers to be cautious of information theft and transaction fraud. These have always been around, and are only on the rise with the growing popularity of online shopping.

Have a long shopping list this festive season but are concerned about the safety of your financial transactions, and personal information? Here are 6 steps that you can follow to make your experience safer and steer clear of fraudsters.

1. Trust the familiar: It goes without saying that when shopping online, it is always better to shop on a website that is familiar to you. Many small businesses are selling their products online and taking very good safety measures to protect your data, but beware of fake sites that claim to offer large discounts. Alternatively, if you are shopping through ads/recommendations on social media like the Facebook Marketplace, look for page reviews, followers (go one step ahead and check out some of the profiles- do they look legitimate or do they seem like bot accounts?), comments on their posts and verify the contact numbers.

2. Check for the padlock: Before entering your card details at checkouts and payment pages, check for the padlock. Secure websites show a closed padlock at the top left corner of the taskbar. Another way to check is to see if the URL of the website starts with ‘http://’ or ‘https://’, ‘s’ stands for secure. Alternatively, you can also check the safety and authenticity of a website by using free website security checkers like ssltrust.in.

3. Shop privately: When shopping online, avoid using public WiFi. Public WiFis are usually insecure and vulnerable to cyber attacks. Always shop in your home or a private place using a trusted network. However, if you are out and about all the time, it is best to use a VPN service to keep yourself secure and protect your information even in public WiFis.

4. Use your cards wisely: If you are using your cards to shop online make sure that you are entering your card details in a safe portal. This can be ensured by checking which payment gateway the site uses and checking if that payment gateway complies with all the safety measures. Another easy way to check is to spot safety compliances that are displayed on the portal.

If the portal where you are entering your details show these compliances then your card details are secure.

5. Consider paying through your phone: Another way to stay safe is to use your phone to make payments using an e-wallet or a UPI app. Paying through your phone is safer as it generates a one-time-authentication request for the purchase which cannot be stolen. Do not share OTPs with anyone, only pay through links that are generated by payment gateways and do not click on payment links or any other URL sent by individuals on text/IMs for payments.

6. If nothing works, go old school: If you still don’t trust paying online, it’s best to go old school and opt for cash on delivery. In fact, many shoppers only choose local brands that allow COD as an option.

Issued in the public interest by Razorpay