How to recognize a secure shopping page when using a credit card online

What does a secure shopping Canada page look like? Below I give you the signs to look for in order that you may determine if you can shop safely online with the merchant you are visiting.

You do not need to be scared to go Canada shopping online if you take a little time to read on.

Why do people get cold feet? The horror stories about hackers and other devious operators on the net along with the fear of a medium that is poorly understood scares many that would go online shopping in Canada.

Do you give your credit card to a gas station attendant when filling up?. If so, do you allow the attendant to process your purchase while you stay in your car?. Do you use ATM's or make debit card purchases where you have to punch in your PIN?. These are two of the things that people do every day without giving a thought to how vulnerable they are to crooks wanting their info.

When you are sitting at your computer typing in your info there is no fear of someone double swiping your card at a gas station or getting your PIN with a hidden camera. Stop and think about it for a minute before moving on.

A personal note: I have had the experience of my credit card info being stolen by a low life gas station attendant in Montreal. Fortunately my low limit credit card was only $200 short of maxing out and the Bank thankfully ended up reimbursing me for the fraudulent transactions that were made.

I have used my credit card on secure shopping Canada pages many times and have sold hundreds of items on the net where my customers paid by credit card, through the secure shopping pages that I had set up, and have never experienced a single problem of any sort.

Here is a good idea that may make you feel easier about using a credit card online. Get a new credit card with a low limit that you will only use for secure shopping purposes.

OK, back to the question which is: How do you know when you are on a secure shopping page?

Filling out forms with your personal information and more importantly sensitive personal information such as credit card numbers should be on a secure shopping page.

There are two ways of knowing when you are on a secure page that uses SSL Encryption which is the method commonly used to protect your information:

The address bar near the top your browser displays the Internet address of the page you are on e.g. http://www.canadashoppingcanadian.com/secure-shopping.html. This is not a secure page and you would not want to give out much more information than your name and email address.

If it were a secure page it would read https://www.canadashoppingcanadian.com/secure-shopping.html

Can you spot the difference? The only difference is the "s" that follows http at the beginning of the address. So, if you have to enter sensitive personal information that is protected from all but the site collecting it make sure the "s" follows http.

The second way to know you are on a secure page is that little lock that comes and goes at the bottom of your browser. You have probably seen the lock without knowing why it is there. When the lock is closed it is telling you that you are on a secure page.

There is a potential problem relying on this symbol. Without getting into the reasons why it is best to verify that the lock is real.

Here's how: Double click on the lock twice with the left button on your mouse and information about the secure certificate for that page will pop up. If it doesn't, my advice would be, suspect a problem and back out.

OK, your address bar reads "https" and you have a closed lock at the bottom of your browser that shows certificate info when clicked. Go ahead and fill out the secure shopping form with your information you have little to fear at that point.

Now you know how to recognize a safe shopping Canada site.

More about SSL encryption

Find more secure shopping Canada resources with Google search.

Secure Shopping >> Canada Shopping Home Page