Hello lovely people. Hope you have had a good weekend. First of all, I would like to apologise that I have been able to keep up with my regular three posts per week for the past few weeks. It has been quite hectic lately. I certainly hope I will be able to do three posts a week soon. Thanks for all your support and patience with me. xx

Christmas is just 7 days away. I hope you are all set for the holiday season. For the past few weeks, Christmas gifts shopping has been a hot and hot topic at work and with friends. Every single day we receive promotion from retailers through emails, txt messages, Facebook, and printed ads. Everywhere you see, it’s about Christmas shopping. However, the time before Christmas is also a very busy time at work for most of the people. Online shopping certainly is a good option, so we won’t miss the opportunity to show love to our loved ones. However, while we enjoy the convenience of online shopping, we must take extra cautious to protect ourselves from online identity or/and credit card thefts.

According to Inside Australian Online Shopping 2017 report, total online spend was $21.6 billion in Australia in 2016. During Christmas time, it reaches its peak. 51% of Americans prefer to shop online (bigcommerence.com). It was predicted total holiday sales will reach $923 billion between 1st Nov to 31st Dec this year in US (Lifelock.com). Isn’t that impressive? However, “1 of every 16 adults were identity theft victim in US in 2016” (Lifelock.com). That’s really scary!

I bet everyone does a little bit of online shopping every year. So here are some of my tips for reducing online shopping risk:

• Avoid public network – public WiFi networks are normally very vulnerable. If you can avoid using coffee shop WiFi to make an online purchase, it would be great.
• Don’t give all personal information – we don’t really need to give out our birthday date to purchase anything. I am always amazed that some shops want my birthday date in their system. I understand they would like to reward me on my birthday for my loyalty, but I stay loyal for the products you provide, not for a birthday present.
• Check the SSL – Shop only with the website that has SSL installed. It’s a very basic requirement. Don’t know what that is?When you enter the payment page, there should be a locked padlock icon.
• Check your credit card statement regularly – Check to see if there are any double charges or fraudulent charges.
• Strong passwords – We all know we should use strong passwords, not just 0000, or 1234, right?
• Remember to log-out – It’s a good habit to remember to log out from whatever accounts you just logged in. This is especially important when you use public WiFi or computer.
• Better not store your credit card information on the website – I know it’s convenient to store your credit card info for next purchase. Personally, I just don’t feel comfortable at all to do so.

If you like to see more useful tips, you can find more from Lifelock website.  I hope you enjoy this post. And Happy Online Shopping! xx