COLUMBIA, MO. -- Many retailers are posting their Black Friday sales online as early as the day before Thanksgiving.
The internet allows you to enjoy holiday bargains without the trouble of camping outside of a store and dealing with crowds.
The Better Business Bureau sent out a top 10 list of tips for safe online shopping.
Some of the tips are just common sense such as making sure your computer has a firewall or being aware of too good to be true deals.
One thing you might not have thought about when shopping online is making sure your online purchase is secure. In the store’s website address there should be an “s” after the "http" in the url of the website; that means you using your credit card at a secure website.
“Check the online site and make sure that it has a privacy policy and a secure site," Better Business Bureau Spokesperson Adrian McBride said. "Don’t rely on pictures that you see on the internet. Go into the store and touch it, feel it and make sure it’s the real deal. Try to pay with a credit card as often as possible. If there’s a refund that needs to be received, you can shut down the credit card and get the refund through your credit card.”
McBride said another common mistake made by online shoppers is giving out too much personal information like social security numbers. If a site asks for your social security number, it’s probably a scam.
McBride said online shoppers should also beware of phishing this holiday season. That’s when a scammer sends you an e-mail claiming there’s a problem that tricks you into giving personal financial information.
McBride said legitimate businesses do not send e-mails.
“I recommend sticking with the bigger department stores and bigger retail outlets and companies that have been around for a while,” McBride said.
McBride said the best way to shop online is to use websites with the Better Business Bureau seal of approval.
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