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Happy Holidays San Diego! Holiday shopping season is an opportunity for everyone to make their purchasing decisions that have been getting stalled during rest of the year. It is the time of year, when hardworking individuals may get down and cool their heels. They later indulge themselves in shopping for great Holiday shopping deals and super saver offers from top brands worldwide. From smartphones to shoes, clothes to home appliances, everything is on sale during this big online shopping season. So it is vital to be alert, cautious and conscious of your surroundings, your dealers, the online marketplaces, before deciding to make a purchase. This is to be done so that thieves and looters do not spoil an enjoyable holiday season that you deserve.

While mall shopping continues to remain popular with shoppers in the holiday season, it is the online shopping arena that has gotten heated up over the last half decade from around 2005 when online shopping picked up sufficient traction. Online shopping scores above brick and mortar shopping on several fronts, more so in terms of ease of shopping, convenience, easy access to a large array of items and goods without one moving even an inch. However, with heightened convenience and ease of online shopping came also the danger of nefarious activities such as ‘scamming’, ‘phishing’, ‘malware’, ‘stealing of bank information’ and other such harmful activities. Therefore, it is necessary to be extra cautious when you shop for  Christmas shopping online. Here are some important holiday shopping tips for you:

1) While shopping online especially during the holiday season, it is best to avoid new shopping websites as they are most likely to be scammers and Phishers jumping on the holiday spending spree of shoppers.

2) If you come across a great deal, but are unsure of the website’s authenticity, then there are a couple of ways to check if the website is genuine or not.

• You can see if the website has a golden lock sign at the left of the address bar before the URL of the website is written. This indicates that the website is safe and secure and has been verified by Google search.
• You can also see if the website URL begins with https://. The extra‘s’ after http: is for ‘security’ and indicates that the website can be trusted.
• Also, see if the website has provided any ‘Contact us’ option anywhere in the site. If yes, then immediately call the customer-care provided number to see if it is working, genuine and if an actual human being responds to it or not. If it is a scam site, chances are that the customer care number is most likely to be busy, or unavailable, or if available then the hold times will be suspiciously long. Absence of any customer-care number is a strong indication of the website being a scam site.

3) Avoid clicking on POP-UPS that come to you unsolicited and randomly ask for your bank account details, credit card information while requesting you to form an account. That is totally unnecessary and such POP-UPS are best avoided.

4) Finally, USE Credit Cards because most credit card companies include a Cardholder Dispute Form when you sign up for a credit card. This form can be used to dispute any purchase that you have made in situations where the product is a counterfeit copy, or not as described in the deal, or if damaged or not delivered. You can immediately receive your money back from the credit card company, which will then try to obtain it from the dealer. Hence, it is best to avoid cash during crash sales. Have a great time during Holiday Shopping!!!