-

Be Safe, Not Sorry

Tips for secure online
holiday shopping.

With the economy making us con-
cerned about how, when and where we
spend our money this holiday season,
the American Bar Association (ABA)
has some tips for shopping online.
The amount of online shopping
has risen dramatically over the past
decade. Online shopping this holiday
season will continue the year-to-year
growth that it has seen over recent
years, growing from 37.6 percent of
Americans shopping online in 2006
to 47.2 percent this year, according to
research by pricegrabber.com.
The following tips come from the
ABA www.SafeShopping.org Web site,
which was developed by its business
law section to help consumers safe-
guard their money and identity while
shopping online:
Trust your
instincts. If you
don't feel com-
fortable buying
or bidding on
an item over the
Web, or if you feel
pressured to place
your order imme-
diately, maybe you
shouldn't.
Be knowledge-
able about Web-
based auctions.
Take special care to familiarize your-
self not only with the rules and poli-
cies of the auction site itself, but with
the legal terms (warranties, refund
policy, etc.) of the seller's items that
you wish to bid on.
Double check pricing. Be suspi-
cious of prices that seem too good to
be true. Also consider carefully wheth-
er you may be paying too much for
an item, particularly if you're bidding
through an auction site. You may want
to comparison shop, online or offline,
before you buy. Make sure there are no
extra shipping or handling costs.
Find and carefully read the pri-
vacy policy to find out what infor-
mation the seller is gathering from
you. How will the information be
used, and how you can stop the pro-
cess? If a site does not have a privacy
policy posted, you may not want to do
business with it.
Review the return, refund and
shipping and handling policies as

well as the other legal terms. If you
can't find them, ask the seller through
an e-mail or telephone call to indicate
where they are on the site or to pro-
vide them to you in writing.
Make sure the Internet con-
nection is secure. Before you give
your payment information, check for
indicators that security software is in
place. Check in the lower right corner
of your computer screen to make sure
your security system icon appears. If
not, contact the company.
Use the safest way to pay on the
Internet. Pay for your order using a
credit card. Print the terms. You should
print out and date a copy of terms,
conditions, warranties, item descrip-
tion, company information, even con-

'W"'""•/

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rt
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ollar Castle
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rrol Sherman Foot Care
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art
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t
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firming e-mails, and save them with
your records of your purchase.
Ensure the safe delivery of your
item. If you're concerned you may not
be home when your package is deliv-
ered and that someone may take it if
it is left on the doorstep, ask whether
you can specify that the shipper must
receive a signature before leaving the
package. Or, it may be safer to have the
package delivered to your office.
Inspect your purchase. Look at
your purchase carefully as soon as you
receive it. Contact the seller as soon
as possible if you discover a problem
with it. Tell the seller in writing about
any problems you have, ask for a
repair or refund, and keep a copy of
your correspondence.
These tips and other suggestions are
found on the ABA's safe shopping Web
site, www.SafeShopping.org .

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