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In the real world one of the hats I wear is a US Federal Government Information Security Officer which is a fancy way of saying I worry about how to keep people from defrauding the US Government. Here is what a lot of my collegues say about buying on line:
Only buy from stores that you know, these stores have a lot to loose by scaming you out of your dollars. Buy from stores such as Amazon, Border, B&N, Kobo Book and ebooks.
Be suspicious of companies whose prices are far below that of their compeition. A pal of mine was buying home repair services and all of the estimates clustered around the $100 mark and one was approximatly $35 for the same thing. The low bid was rather supicious. Turns out that was an attempt at fraud.
Never enter your credit card number in a web site unless you see the https:// in the web address, this indiciates that the data is scrambled between you and the estore.
Be careful about the web address. There is a electronic store that I do business with ocasionally called Swanson Vitamins (there address is swansonvitamins.com) there is also a fraud site called Swansons Vitamins (address is swansonsvitamins.com). Notice the addition of the s.
When you do business with an electronic store notice the format and graphics on the site and notice little things that hackers will miss. Notice the sweeping arrow under Amazon's logo, notice the little trasure chest next to the todays' deals icon, notice the position of the litte r next to amazon's logo on the bottom of their page. Its little details like this that will indicate a hacker's site or an attempt to scam customer.
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