Shop Safely and Avoid Being Scammed!

Post date: November 21, 2024

By Ross Gidley

That time of the year is here yet again and it’s time to go shopping to bring home some gifts for those you care about, but be careful, otherwise, the toy you ordered will come in the mail as an empty box. In this article: learn to shop smartly by researching correctly. Read this to give your buddy a gift, and to keep your information secure.

As humans, we suffer from something almost unique to our lifetime thus far: we suffer from having too much to use, we have too much at our disposal. With so many stores around us and countless services to shop from online, we are troubled with too many resources and not enough information. Going to stores and services willy-nilly without proper research is foolish, and paves a path for disaster to strike; that being extra spent money, poor quality, inconveniences, or a loss of personal information.

However, as humans we have something almost unique to our lifetime thus far: the internet! Using the internet we can gather information to find out what sites and stores are trustworthy. An easy way to do this is to check the prices of the service, you may find that you can obtain the same item for cheaper at another service. Check the reviews, many people like to share praise or complaints about a service they’ve used, too many negative reviews are a warning sign not to use a service. Never read the reviews on the service's own page, they have control over what reviews to show and will not show their negative reviews/be completely honest. You should also search for articles about the service; do they have a bad or good reputation? Popular services can also be malicious, with that in mind you should always research to get as much information as possible.

The internet is a great source of information and services however, you need to tread carefully throughout the web. Just like how some services are unreliable or outright bad, articles can be out of date and contain misinformation. To check the legitimacy of an article, check how long ago the article was published and if it has any spelling or grammar errors. However, older articles with good quality can be used to show what services have a history of poor reputation.

Now that you are browsing the web properly and researching, you can avoid scummy scams, keep your personal information, and shop safely! This way the ones you care about get gifts, and people you don’t care about don’t get your credit card. I wish anyone reading this happy holidays, and safe shopping!