How Do I Make Sure That A Website Is Safe For Online Transactions?

1. Papa Lazarous Says

   HTTPS does show it is an encrypted connection and that any information passed between your computer an the host server is encrypted and safe. There are other things you can do to make sure an online retailer is safe to deal with. You can alos choose to view the “security certificate” issued by VeriSign or other official source [although recently there have reports of stolen digital verification certificates] so don’t JUST rely on this.
   Us WOT {Web of Trust} which will givce you warnings if the site you are using is at all suspect. It is a free open source addon for your browser, get it here: http://www.mywot.com/en/download
   Millions of people around the world use WOT and all users can give their ratings for safety of website, so it is very useful as personal recommendations are often a good way of ensuring you will have a good safe buying experience.
   Use a credit card to purchase so if something goes wrong you are covered by the credit card company’s fraud policy.
   Check the “contact us” area of the website to make sure there is a physical address and telephone number listed and not just an email address. so you can contact them if you need to, or something goes wrong with your order.

2. Anonymous Says

   The https is definitely what you want to look for. It ensures they are using the SSL protocol.
   The “https” also signifies that the business has been granted a digital certificate that indicates that the business is a trusted party that has been checked by the appropriate authorities and is safe to do business with. If in visiting a site you receive a message stating that the digital certificate of the owner has expired, proceed with caution.
   You also want to make sure that they have the https for anything secure such as login forms.

3. Pall Mall Says

   ask your bank about a virtual credit card ; is worth it if you do alot on online buying – like evryone said use htts only ; check site for scams or complaints and install mywot.com (is free browser add on for firefox . google n IE )
   tis is what mywot does ( screen shot of google search ) green safe . red – known bad or reported bad sitehttp://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie…
   scroll the page

4. Twinkle Twinkle Says

   if there is s in the adress https that means safe

5. Anonymous Says

   “https” ensures ONLY encryption; it does not imply trust, or verification of ownership, or anything else.
   That aspect is associated with the padlock on the browser itself (not a lock image on the sites page…that means nothing).
   Click the lock and examine the pedigree of the Certificate for any funny business, but seriously; this whole Certificate business is becoming top heavy and less-than-ideal for instilling ‘trust’.
   How a site “looks” is completely irrelevant. Crooks spend hours crafting the outward appearance of a site to polish & glamorize websites to lure unsuspecting victims.
   Your strategy should be to utilize more than one ‘check’ utility; then you get broader coverage from multiple sources.
   Have a go with these:
   Zscaler Safe Shopping is continually up-to-date, via the Zscaler cloud security service, on compromised and fake online stores. It warns users when they visit one of the suspect domains.
   Firefox add-on; http://research.zscaler.com/2011/02/zsca…
   Web of Trust should be on every browser. It gives an icon next to a Google search page, with green, yellow, or red dots, for each URL.
   Right clicking any link you encounter gives a pop-up window> “View WoT Scorecard” takes you to the WoT site’s index of that sites feedback. Very handy for those with liberal browser security.http://www.mywot.com/
   Google ‘safe search’ diagnostic tool pre-screens the site you seek and gives feedback about it’s current (real time) malware stats.
   To use the tool, “copy” this URL link to your address bar, then append the questionable URL to the end of the equal sign, then hit ‘go’ button:http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagn…
   Cover your backside: use a dedicated, low limit credit card or debit card for these on-line transactions, because ultimately it gets down to a matter of ‘Do you trust them?’, and there is no completely infallible method to do this.
   Also note, that if you’re using Windows to do these delicate transactions, and you are not a security EXPERT, it’s all moot anyway.

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