How to know if an online purchase is safe?

The forced confinement has picked up Internet sales and added new consumers, but cybercrimes have also increased. We explain how to buy online safely.

The State of Alarm has not only brought sad or negative news. For electronic commerce (or eCommerce ) it has meant a consolidation of a consumption model that in all probability will be the one that awaits us when we return from isolation.

Sales figures in eCommerce in Spain have been growing at double digits for a long time, but since March 14, there has been a stunning increase that has led it to grow to almost 60%, for obvious reasons.

This has led to those who already made purchases frequently through online platforms (such as Amazon) or online sales systems in models based on omnichannel (such as Zara or La Casa del Libro) have increased their online purchases and have added other goods such as food or household products.

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To these have been added the “analog natives” , who are wary of internet purchases and online payments in which they had to enter card details on a web page. Necessity has led to risk taking and, in most cases, has resulted in a happy purchase. But crimes (data theft, identity theft, phishing ) have increased in such a favorable breeding ground. It is important to know them and know how to combat them so that eCommerce does not become our worst subject.

Phishing ( “ fishing”, in English) is the classic. Simply explained, it consists of a message (an email, SMS, whatsapp) in which a sender—who we seem to know—asks us to please enter a link to receive a prize and fix a problem with our account. , among the most frequent.

With a few simple tips you will not be fooled:

1. If you do not owe any amount of money, there is no problem with your account or the message misses you, be suspicious and do nothing. You can also check the email (full address) or URL of the page from which this is sent (you will see that they are very rare).
2. Never click on the link if you are not 100% sure. These links either refer to another page or—this is the most dangerous—autorun a program on your device that accesses all your information.
3. If, despite the above, you have already “fallen into the trap”, don’t worry, there are solutions. Two-step verification is a very useful tool (if you haven’t activated it yet or don’t know how to do it, stay tuned for our next post). When you receive the transaction confirmation SMS on your mobile, check what it says, the fraud or theft may be discovered at that time and your account will be charged a huge amount that does not match the purchase made on the web .
4. In the worst case, if it has already “taken” you, quickly enter your online bank and cancel the card or call the theft telephone number of your entity.

In addition to phishing, it is also important that you do not access any online account with your passwords from a public WIFI (from a hotel, a supermarket, etc.). It is the best gateway for those who want to do with your information.

Finally, we must get used to encrypting the devices that we use and that contain information through the use of strong passwords and with several security steps. A good practice is to stop using simple, logical or contacted passwords with our data such as: “1234” or “Miguel1”, for example.

To help us control passwords and users, a very effective solution is password management applications. There are some free ones that work really well, like SafeInCloud or 1PassWord. Check out more articles on our stie SM Blog.

Of course, many can now say goodbye to the use of cash in favor of electronic payment systems or, who knows, cryptocurrencies. By then, the good habits that we acquire now regarding electronic commerce will serve us in the new future that awaits us when we return from confinement.