Cautions for Online Shopping

There was a story on out local news about a young lady who thought she was buying a telephone on Ebay and when she received the purchase, she had purchased a box without a phone inside. Shopping on the Web is not always all it's cracked up to be. Sure, it's convenient and you can find some great deals, but that doesn't mean you should let your guard down.

There is a lot of misinformation out there that may seem like it's coming from a reliable source. Take shopping bot sites, for instance. They compile a number of products from different Web sites, and some of these services take payment for listing a product.

How can you protect yourself? As a rule of thumb, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be wary if the price is extremely low; consider it a red flag indicating that not everything is on the up-and-up with the merchant. In the event of fraud, your credit card will protect you for everything but $50 of your purchase, but $50 is more then I want to like go off with nothing to show for it.

By Bobbie G. from Rockwall, TX