Wild West District Extension Blog

Tag: Online Shopping

Holiday Shopping online?  Tips on how to keep your financial information safe.

By: Kristin Penner, Family Resource Management Extension Agent

For many shoppers, Cyber Monday kicks off the online holiday season.  For some online thieves, ‘tis the season to take advantage of so many people shopping online.  This year due to Covid-19 people are taking to the internet to complete their Christmas shopping safely.  But, are you making sure you are also protecting yourself from Identity theft?

Here are a few tips to help you shop safely this holiday season:

  • Set strong passwords for you accounts. Do not use the same password for multiple accounts.  If they hack one account, they can hack all your accounts.
  • Shop on sites where the web address begins with “https;” the “s” is for secure communications over the computer network.
  • Do not shop on unprotected Wi-Fi
  • Shop at familiar online retailers
  • Do not open links or attachments on suspicious emails.
  • Limit the amount of personal information you give out.

Source: Federal Trade Commission  https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0020-shopping-online